Image: Karluv Most (Charles Bridge), Prague by Colin Pletts
stone has the advantage over water
lines on Charle’s Bridge, Prague
石头比水优越
——关于布拉格查理大桥的诗
the grey lifting archways, bridge-spans in miniature,
over-stepping the quiet Vltava, the grey half of the day in mourning
with the saints and artefacts of history. Blood as a red river
has congregated here, shedding belief. Over time
the saints have to witness the grey ending of everything.
Every dawn has the grey stone in her fingertips
and possession of these grey blocks
is much more than about crossing air and water,
the adjunct of belonging between heaven and earth,
the space between two sides of anything.
The loss and luck of the body of a brass hound,
sculpted here in the fourteenth century, has recorded it all, obediently
sitting in the bright snow and strong midnight shadow. The steady echo
of bricks combining in a white wall the hungry once constructed,
still leans into this still water space,
where another strange white presence falters beside the blue light.
Too cold at the bridge’s midnight, and its history too obscure for nature,
the moon herself just measures the silence with brightness
27th July 2025
Response Poetry By Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Response Poetry Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波
“Yongbo said to me, ‘Charles Bridge has statues, doesn’t it?’, we were discussing my time spent in Prague in the first decade of the new millennium. ‘Did you ever write a song about it? ‘ he asked me. He told me he had a bridge song. So I read ‘A Bridge Covered with Statues’ by Ma Yongbo and yes, it feels just like Charles Bridge, the imposing dark statues looking down on you as you walk along the bridge, black and solemn and extremely gothic-eerie at night, dimly lit for only foot traffic. Then he says to me, ‘why don’t you write a bridge song about Charles Bridge…” Helen Pletts, 1st October 2025.
石头比水优越
——关于布拉格查理大桥的诗
stone has the advantage over water
lines on Charle’s Bridge, Prague
升起的灰色拱洞，一连串小桥，
跨越静谧的伏尔塔瓦河，一半是灰色的白昼在哀悼
圣徒和历史遗存。血如红河
曾在此汇聚，流失着信仰。时光流转
圣徒们不得不见证万物归于灰色的结局。
每个黎明的指尖都有灰色的石头
拥有这些灰色石块的意义
远不止于跨越空气与水，
而是天堂与尘世之间归属的凭据，
是任何事物两端之间的空间。
一尊黄铜猎犬身体的损失与幸运，
雕刻于十四世纪，记录了一切，顺从地
坐在明亮的雪地与浓重的午夜阴影中。
砖块的稳固回声在饥饿者筑成的白墙中交织，
依然倾身于这片宁静的水域，
另一导奇异的白影在蓝光旁摇曳。
桥的午夜过于寒冷，其历史对于自然来说太过晦涩，
只有月亮以光华丈量着寂静
2025年7月27日
海伦·普莱茨
Chinese link here https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/bTFZytHE0wgnOBpqm1mhvg
Image : Prague: Charles Bridge, wood Engraving, English, 1866
A Bridge Covered with Statues
布满雕像的桥
On both sides of the long bridge, pale marble figures stand in rows,
towering above their pedestals, they are some saints and ancient heroes.
Their names are unknown, their deeds even more so.
They look down at passers-by, expressionless.
The river flows day and night without rest.
This bridge could be any bridge in the world
in London, Florence, Prague, Paris, or Brooklyn,
yet it also feels not of this world, not anywhere at all.
In winter, a dark tide of people moves across the bridge,
accompanied by slushy snow, silent and slow.
Occasionally, a man in a top hat pauses,
staring at the river below, his cigarette glows red, then fades,
briefly lighting up his young, handsome, yet pale face.
He might be a revolutionary waiting for a contact, or perhaps
a jilted lover, an unrecognised artist.
The statues, meanwhile, seem to gaze forever into emptiness,
staring at where the river comes from and where it goes,
only when no one is there at deep night
do they finally turn to look at one another.
December 9, 2022
Response Poetry by Ma Yongbo 马永波
Response Poetry Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波
Image: Ma Yongbo 马永波
布满雕像的桥
A Bridge Covered with Statues
长桥两侧，布满苍白的大理石人像
高耸在基座之上，他们是一些圣人和古代的英雄
不知道他们的名字，更不了解他们的业绩
他们俯视着行人，没有什么表情
河水日夜不息
这座桥仿佛是人世间的任何一座桥
在伦敦，在佛洛伦萨，在布拉格，在巴黎和布鲁克林
又仿佛不在人世间，不在任何地方
在冬天，桥上流过黑色的人流
伴随着泥泞的雪，沉默而缓慢
偶尔有一个戴长筒帽的男子停下
凝望桥下的河水，烟头一红一灭
短暂地照亮他年轻英俊又苍白的脸
他仿佛是等待接头的革命者，或者是
一个失意的恋人，一个未成名的艺术家
而这些雕像似乎永远在凝视着虚空
凝视着河流的来处和去处
只有在夜深无人时，他们才会彼此对视
2022年12月9日
马永波
Image: Mary Ann Welch, born 6th July 1890 – 1944 ‘Auntie Mary’
“my mother had a relative, Mary Ann Welch, (6th July, 1890-1944) affectionately known in our family as ‘Auntie Mary’. Through her connections with the Trades Union movement in Manchester and Czechoslovakia she participated in rescuing the children of persecuted Jewish families in Prague, and relocating them to Manchester. The first time, my mother, Ann Bannister, stood with me on Charles Bridge, on looking back at the imposing outline of Prague Castle, she realised she knew the Castle already from constantly seeing an engraving of it in Auntie Mary’s house, when she visited her as a child. Charles Bridge and Prague was already connected to my family before I lived there. My mother left me Auntie Mary’s writing desk in her will” Helen Pletts, 1st October 2025
Image: Auntie Mary’s desk at 23 Station Road, Halesworth in Ann Bannister’s favourite snug where she kept all her art materials for her painting.
Image: Helen Pletts and her beloved mother, Ann Bannister, Prague 2009,
Prague Castle in the background to left
Image: Inchigo Pletts, beloved rescue from the streets of Prague by Amber Pletts.
Specific photographic images/graphic art under individual copyright © to either Ma Yongbo 马永波
or Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨, Colin Pletts, Amber Pletts
.