Chinese painting depicting a rainy night, artist unknown
Traditional Chinese landscape paintings Shan Shui (mountain and water) use rain to evoke atmosphere, symbolising harmony with nature.
rain talking to night in darkness
雨在黑暗中与夜晚交谈
conversation stretches in soft tongues,
she is singing in silver, midnight hears her,
the rain exchanges. Midnight is a listener,
his dark mouth open wide, catching her
chattering sounds scattered in the water
25th September 2024
Helen Pletts reads her own poem ‘rain talking to night in darkness’
Listen here rain talking to night in darkness by Helen Pletts – YouTube
Response Poetry By Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Response Poetry Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波
雨在黑暗中与夜晚交谈
rain talking to night in darkness
对话在柔软的舌头上延伸，
她以银色的声音歌唱；午夜倾听她，
雨交换着话题。午夜是一个倾听者，
他张大漆黑的嘴，接住她
散落在水中的喋喋之声。
2024年9月25日
“Yongbo 永波 and I have a deep and meaningful understanding but I am not sure how, we have actually never met in person. Sometimes we discover that our imaginations meet and overlap completely and yet we have never discussed much about our writing in detail. We usually only see each other’s finished songs and then we might discuss them during their translation. I had written a short song about the rain communicating with a dark night, oh, I have one similar he said—only his was written decades before mine —in 2005”
Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨, 26th November 2025
Jiang Linshan 姜林杉 reads Helen Pletts’ 海伦·普莱茨 ‘rain talking to night in darkness’ 雨在黑暗中与夜晚交谈
Listen here https://youtube.com/shorts/VNkHwoj-XVk?feature=share
Jiang Lingshan 姜林杉, is a Host and Broadcasting Director at Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation, winner of the China Golden Microphone Award for Broadcasting and Hosting, Deputy Director of Jiangsu Broadcasting and Hosting Committee, and a member of the National Broadcasting and Recitation Expert Group of “Xuexi Qiangguo.” She has edited 10 audio textbooks on Mandarin and recitation.
The rain still falls, the rain converses with the dark
雨还在下，雨在和黑暗对话
The rain still falls, the rain converses with the dark
I eavesdrop on their murmurs
the less I understand, the more I listen
at times they blur, as if speaking from afar
then suddenly raise their voices
as though to mock me on purpose
they speak in a forgotten tongue
their secrets hold no bond with mine
so I abandon efforts to decode their whispers
I know the Yangtze grows darker, vaster now
sand gleams on crimson barges
Lingzhou and Huanzhou in Xuanwu Lake dissolve
while rain descends on every Purple Mountain path
each trail cradles a shadow-self of mine
a figure stubbornly dissolving into rain
Helen Pletts reads Ma Yongbo’s poem ‘The rain still falls, the rain converses with the dark’
Listen here The rain still falls, the rain converses with the dark – YouTube
Response Poetry By Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Response Poetry Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波
Painting by Fu Baoshi 傅抱石 – ‘Evening Rain in the Ba Mountains’.
Fu Baoshi 傅抱石 (1904-1965) Chinese painter from Xinyu, Jiangxi, famed for his “integration of poetic atmosphere and painting techniques”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_Baoshi
雨还在下，雨在和黑暗对话
The rain still falls, the rain converses with the dark
雨还在下，雨在和黑暗对话
我偷听它们在说些什么
越听不懂越是想听
它们时而模糊，似乎说着话走远了
时而又突然提高声音
似乎是故意在嘲笑我
它们用的是失传的语言
它们和我其实没有什么关系
于是我放弃了参与它们秘密的努力
我知道，长江上更加黑暗苍茫了
那些红色驳船上的沙子闪闪发亮
玄武湖中的菱洲环洲都在陆续消失
只有雨落在紫金山所有的小路上
每一条上都走着一个黑黑的我
一个固执地想消失在雨中的人
2005
Ma Yongbo 马永波, 21st May 2025, Xi’an, China, Planet Earth, The Universe
Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨, 18th January, Halesworth, Suffolk, UK, Planet Earth, The Universe
Specific photographic images/graphic art under individual copyright © to either Ma Yongbo 马永波 or Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨 or Jiang Linshan 姜林杉
.