Angry butterfly flaps her wings
—shakes powder in the eyes of the giant,
her body bends and tightens like a girl with menstrual cramps
—her wings fading; becoming transparent.
Shining bald giant is blind
—with a wide golden belt, he spins in the clearing; appears,
disappears, on a floating island.
Butterflies have been fighting,
as if from creation
—they’ve fought for so long
now they’ve forgotten the reason,
humans have also forgotten them too
—butterflies go unseen.
I don’t know why I came to this clearing,
wedged between two towers of a large shopping mall.
Built so far from the city, in the fields,
the customers scarce
—shop staff stare blankly-back, in each branded store.
—It’s winter, the butterfly’s scream
pauses in the air
like snowflakes, or plaster powder,
—hesitates for an instant, then spins faster;
plunges towards an invisible slope.
translation by Ma Yongbo and Helen Pletts 2024
愤怒的蝴蝶 ⻢永波
愤怒的蝴蝶扇动翅膀
向巨人眼睛里撒粉末
她的身体像痛经的少女弯曲着绷紧
她的翅膀上的花纹迅速透明
而那光头闪亮的巨人是盲目的
⻩金腰带很宽，他在空地打转
他来自一个忽隐忽现的浮岛
他们一直在战斗，好像从开天辟地时起
他们战斗得太久了，什么原因
他们自己已经忘记了
人类也已经把他们忘记了
于是他们变得透明了
我不知什么原因来到这片空地
它夹在一个大型购物商场的两座塔楼之间
商场建筑在离城市很远的田野里
顾客稀少，各种品牌店里店员神情茫然
这是冬天，蝴蝶的呐喊
在空中像雪片或是石膏粉末暂时停住
犹豫一下，然后加速旋转
向着一个无形的斜坡扑落 2018.1.1
Ma Yongbo 马永波
Ma Yongbo is a publishing strategist, critic, author, postdoctoral fellow in literature, and part-time professor at Xiamen University. He is also a well-known translator and commentator on post-modern poetry from the United Kingdom and United States. Since 1986 he has published more than sixty works of poetry, criticism and translation, including A Summer Broadcast at Two Speeds, Post-1940 US Poetry, Post-1950 US Poetry, Post-1970 US Poetry, An Anthology of Contemporary US Poetry, Selected Poems of John Ashbery, To Die For Beauty – An Emily Dickinson Anthology, Gulliver’s Travels, The “Nine Leaves” Group and Western Modernism, The Barren Page, and Snow on the Hedge.
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