The Sleeping Gypsy, by Henri Rousseau, 1897
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Rousseau
In July, Ma Yongbo 马永波 went to visit Dunhuang, which sits on the edge of the Gobi Desert and near the eastern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in northeastern China.
The Great Desert 大漠
No long river here, yet the setting sun is still full‑rounded.
A furnace pours forth incandescent flames.
Shrunken houses, shrunken trees, shrunken human beings.
Only the immense void keeps spreading across the salt‑alkali land.
Now and then loess terraces wave red silk ribbons.
Brown horse troops of the Qilian Mountains keep riding into blank space.
The caravan wagons are long gone. The veiled princess,
her cherry‑small mouth dark as tomato, chants Flowers of the Back Palace all night long.
Yumen Pass, Jiayuguan, Yangguan, Ghost Gate Pass —
all yield to broad thoroughfares, while the single‑log bridge
still sews the two banks with its rusted needle.
Dunhuang, besieged by sea‑sand, can no longer soar in flight.
At night grains of sand roll softly.
Countless crab‑feet stir up gossip and strife.
The vowels of white poplars have mutated into grey consonants.
July 3, 2026
On the bus from Dunhuang to Xining
Response Poetry By Ma Yongbo 马永波
Response Poetry Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波
大漠 The Great Desert
没有长河，落日照样圆满
一座熔炉，倾倒出白炽的火焰
缩水的房屋，缩水的树，缩水的人
只有庞大的虚无贴着盐碱地不断扩张
偶尔有黄土的高台挥舞起红绸
祁连山褐色的马队反复走进留白
大篷车早已消失，蒙面的公主
樱桃小口黑如番茄，彻夜吟诵后庭花
玉门关，嘉峪关，阳关，鬼门关
统统让位于大道通衢，而独木桥
依然以锈蚀的针在缝合两岸
被沙海围困的敦煌，无力飞天
夜里，沙粒悄悄滚动
无数只螃蟹的脚在拨弄是非
银白杨的元音，也变异成了灰色的辅音
20260703于敦煌赴西宁车上
Photograph taken by Ma Yongbo 马永波, on the 3rd July 2026, and sent to Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨 by WhatsApp during his visit to Dunhuang, Gansu Province, Northwestern China, Planet Earth, The Universe
Dunhuang is situated in an oasis Crescent Lake and the Singing Sand Dunes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunhuang
the poet in Dunhuang desert—for Yongbo
敦煌沙漠里的诗人 —— 致永波
red cloth is tethered to the mast of a woman’s hip
it flexes and twists against the blue sky.
The poet’s phone walks towards the moment inside the heat
as the red cloth flaps backwards into the sun.
The poet’s hand in blue and red receding into nothing but heat,
even the poet’s feet feel it through his trainers,
the sand has small foot craters
where red cloth has passed this way before,
and each impression is not in a hurry
to become another shape,
it waits for another footstep poised in the heat,
like all the other creases.
The poet has no hat and his friends are lost
and the singing sand pile waits for him to walk towards it.
The phone that retrieved his signal now fades,
thousands of pixels recede into thousands of grains of sand.
Immediately, we are measured in thousands,
as small and white as specks at their most extreme.
We grow into the white landscape as white space,
emulating emptiness with silence.
The blank creased-up face of the desert staring up into the blue
trying hard to remember her own last conversation with rainfall,
the pitted watersound on sand and something growing.
In the arches of sand silence is only heat and light when it is most present.
2nd July 2026, Yongbo is in the Dunhuang desert and tries to FaceTime me until the signal is lost
Response Poetry by Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Response Poetry Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波
敦煌沙漠里的诗人 —— 致永波
the poet in Dunhuang desert—for Yongbo
一块红布系在女人胯侧的桅杆上，
在蓝天下弯曲和扭转。
诗人的手机正向着热浪中的那一刻走去，
红布在身后向着太阳翻飞。
诗人青红相间的手隐入无边的热浪，
连他的双脚，也透过帆布鞋感受到了这份炙热。
沙地上布满小小足印的火山坑，
那是红布途经此地的痕迹。
每一个印记都不急于
化作另一种形状，
它在热浪中静候下一个驻足的脚步，
一如那些古老的褶皱。
诗人没有帽子，朋友们也已经迷失，
鸣沙山正等着他靠近。
那部曾捕捉到他信号的手机渐渐黯淡，
万千像素，退散成万千黄沙。
刹那间，我们以千来计量，
渺小而苍白，如小到极致的微尘。
我们像留白融入这片白色的风景，
用寂静模仿着虚无。
沙漠用茫然的布满褶皱的脸仰望蓝天，
回想她和雨水的最后一次交谈
沙上水声斑驳，某物在生长。
在沙丘的拱脊间，极致的寂静，不过是光与热。
2026年7月2日
永波在沙漠里，试图与我视频，直到信号消失。
MINGSHA MOUNTAIN CRESCENT SPRING
The Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring Scenic Area has a planned area of 212.86 square kilometers, with the scenic area covering 76.82 square kilometers and the core area being 12.79 square kilometers. It is composed of six major landscape areas, namely Yuequan Bay, Xiangsha Slope, Dune Chain, Low Hills, Gobi, and the Dune Experimental Area. Its main landscape resources are the grand and vast aeolian landforms, the unique pyramid-shaped sand dunes, and the wonder of Crescent Moon Spring. Characterized by the features of ‘divinity, wonder, vastness, mystery, and antiquity’, it takes the mystery of the singing sand and its long history and culture as its connotation. With the main functions of resource protection, sightseeing, popular science education, cultural promotion, and leisure activities, it is a national-level scenic area that represents the natural landscape features of Dunhuang and has the value of a world natural heritage.
The Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring are renowned for the wonder of the mountain, the uniqueness of the spring, the fame of the singing sand caused by the movement of sand, and the oddity of the spring embraced by the sand. In the scenic area, there is Crescent Moon Spring, which is known as the ‘First Spring in the World’s Deserts’; Mingsha Mountain, the world’s largest golden sand lying Buddha mountain; and the rare pyramid-shaped dune chains and other magnificent desert spectacles.
Ma Yongbo 马永波, Nanjing, China and Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨, Cambridge, UK, Planet Earth, The Universe. Their first bi-lingual book ‘Night-Shining White’ is to be published Autumn 2026 by Experiments in Fiction, Editor Ingrid Wilson. Their dream is to both be present for their book launch in Cambridge in October 2026, at the Cambridge Poetry Festival.
‘Two poetic sensibilities from the furthest ends of the earth, yet harmonious. This collection proclaims the death of Cliche, and the power of Telling Metaphor. Reading these mysteries brings undoubted pleasure and bold new perspectives on nature and humanity’
Mike Bannister on ‘Night-Shining White’, by Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨and Ma Yongbo 马永波
Cambridge Poetry Festival, event poster, 10th to the 11th October 2026, Cambridge, UK, Planet Earth, The Universe. Ma Yongbo 马永波 has been invited to read at the Cambridge Poetry Festival on 10th October 2026 at Anglia Ruskin University.
Cambridge Poetry Festival, 👇 find out what’s on here
https://cambridgepoetryfestival.org
https://instagram.com/cambridgepoetryfestival
“Dear Sir/Madam,
We are writing in our joint capacity as trustees of Cambridge Poetry Festival, a registered UK charity, to formally invite Professor Ma Yongbo to attend the Cambridge Poetry Festival in October 2026. Ma Yongbo is a renowned Chinese academic and poet, and we have invited him to participate in a series of scheduled events at the upcoming Cambridge Poetry Festival which is being hosted at multiple Cambridge Universities.
The main Festival is scheduled to take place across the weekend of 10th to 11th of October, with additional ad hoc events in the week leading up to and following it. Ma Yongbo will contribute to the festival in the following ways:
- Delivering a poetry reading of his original work both in Chinese and English on 100h October;
- Leading a Chinese-language poetry workshop for festival attendees on 10th October;
- Launching ‘Night-Shining White’, a bilingual poetry book co-authored with Helen Pletts, at a festival-hosted event on 8th October. No profit or income will be derived by Ma Yongbo from this launch; the event is purely cultural and celebratory in nature.
The festival is a not-for-profit cultural event that ran originally from 1975 to 1985 and again from 2025. Anglia Ruskin University is a partner of the festival.”
Excerpt from Ma Yongbo’s 马永波 letter of invitation for his VISA office
Ma Yongbo 马永波
Ma Yongbo was born in 1964, Ph.D, representative of Chinese Avant-garde poetry, and a leading scholar in Anglo-American poetry. He is the founder of Difficult writing and objectified poetics. He is also the first translator to introduce British and American postmodern poetry into Chinese, focusing on translating and teaching Anglo-American poetry and prose including the work of Dickinson, Whitman, Stevens, Pound, Amy Lowell, Williams, Ashbery, Rosanna Warren.
He has published over eighty original works and translations since 1986 including 9 poetry collections. Ma Yongbo’s complete Chinese translation of Moby Dick has sold over 600,000 copies.
The Collected Poems of Ma Yongbo (four volumes, Eastern Publishing Centre, 2024) comprising 1178 poems, celebrate 40 years of writing poetry. He teaches at Nanjing University of Science and Technology.
In August 2026 he received the American poetry award: New Generation Beat Poet Laureate (2026-lifetime) China, from The National Beat Poetry Foundation (NBPF) in the United States. In July 2026, at the 6th Silk Road International Poetry Festival, he received the Egyptian Arab Oscar Poetry Award, the festival’s highest honour, and the Silk Road International Poets Federation Laureate Poet Award.
His work is widely published in international journals such as New American Writing, Livemag, Cafe Review, International Times, Vox Populi, Ink Sweat and Tears, Orbis, Cambridge Poetry, Polismagazino, Masticadoresusa, Masticadorescanada, masticadorestaiwan, Feed the Holy, Collaborature, European Poetry, Magique Publishing, Primelore, Verseum Literary, Area Felix, ONE, Sindh Courier, Lingo Lexicon, Worldinkers, Avantappalachia, Madswirl, Allyourpoems, Homouniversalisgr, 100subtextsmagazine, Pandemoniumjournal, Cultural Reverence, Rochford Street Review, Synchchaos, Ezra, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Nuthatchmag, Posit, Yumpu, Our Poetry Archive, Subliminal.surgery, The Raft of Dreams Literary Magazine, Atunis, Insightmagazine, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Acheron Gorkogazette, A Too Powerful Word, Chiron Review, Gas, Chewers, Latinosenglishedition, Medusaskitchen, Beatnikcowboy, Dear O Deer!, The Wordsmith Literary E-Magazine, New Black Bart Poetry Society, Edge of Humanity, Liveencounters, Big Other, Live Nude Poems, Kabita Live, The Aleph Review, Home Planet News, Madswirl, Poemalone, Unlikely Stories Six, Tap into Poetry, Circle of Salt, Semiosis, Zeroesgarden, Durgapur Review, Silver Birch Press, Almanarjournal, Jade Moon, Chinton, Green Trail Poetry Book by Noble Gas, etc.
His poetry in English translation appears in the anthology ‘Elemental: Water, 2025’, Worple Press. 马永波 Ma Yongbo
马永波出生于1964年，文学博士，中国先锋诗歌代表人物，领先的英 美诗歌学者。他是难度写作和客观化诗学的奠基者，也是第一个将英 美后现代诗歌译介进汉语的翻译家。 从1986年起，他已出版原创与翻译著作80余卷，包括9部诗集。他专 注于翻译和教授英美诗歌和散文，包括狄金森、惠特曼、史蒂文斯、庞 德、艾米·洛厄尔、威廉斯、阿什贝利和罗桑娜·沃伦的作品。他出版了《 白鲸》的全译本，销量已超过60万册。他任教于南京理工大学。《马永 波诗歌总集》（四卷本，东方出版中心，2024年）共收录1178首诗，庆祝 他诗学探索40周年。 2026 年 8 月，他获美国国家垮掉派诗歌基金会（NBPF）颁发美国诗 歌奖项：新一代垮掉派终身桂冠诗人（2026— 终身）。 2026年7月，在第六届丝路国际诗歌节上，他斩获该诗歌节最高荣誉 —— 埃及阿拉伯奥斯卡诗歌奖，同时获丝路国际诗人联合会桂冠诗 人奖。
Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Helen Pletts was born in 1960, she is the English co-translator of Chinese poet Ma Yongbo, her official Chinese translator. She is a committee member of CB1 Poetry, the established monthly poetry reading event in central Cambridge UK, which has organised poetry readings for many years. Besides Chinese, her work has been translated into Bangla, Greek, Vietnamese, Serbian, Korean, Arabic, Italian, Albanian, Romanian and Spanish.
Helen and Ma Yongbo are co-creators of the ongoing series of Response Poetry Volumes of the transnational dialogue featured in the ‘Ma Yongbo Poetry Road Trip – Summer Tour 2025’ published by International Times since 10th May 2025.
Helen has five shortlistings for the Bridport Poetry Prize (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024), two longlistings for The Rialto Nature & Place Prize (2018, 2022), a longlisting for the Ginkgo Prize (2019), a longlisting for the National Poetry Competition (2022), 2nd Prize in the Plaza Prose Poetry Competition (2022-23), and a shortlisting for the Plaza Prose Poetry Competition (2023-24).
In July 2026, her poetry, translated by Ma Yongbo, was awarded the Hong Kong Literature and Art Award, an accolade of extraordinary excellence in literary creation, artistic expression and cultural communication by Hong Kong Literature and Art.
Her three collections include the illustrated your eye protects the soft-toed snow drop, with Romit Berger (2022, ISBN 978-9-657-68177-0, Gama Poetry) and two early collections Bottle bank (2008 ISBN 978-1-84923-119-0), and For the chiding dove (2009, ISBN 978-1-84923-485-6) published by YWO/Legend Press with Arts Council support.
Her prizewinning prose poetry features in The Plaza Prizes anthologies and The Mackinaw. Helen’s eco-poetry appears in anthologies ‘Elemental: Water, 2025’ from Worple Press, and ‘Planet In Peril, 2019’, Fly on the Wall Press.
Chinese translations of Helen’s prose poetry by Ma Yongbo opened the 35th Anniversary Edition of New World Poetry — devoted entirely to Prose Poetry — in December 2024. More of Ma Yongbo’s Chinese translations of her poetry are published in Literary World, Prose Poetry, Silver, Poetry Reference, Beidou International Poetry Forum, Wordy Seon, Poetry Appreciation, Hong Kong Literature and Art, and Blue Shark.
Her work is widely published in international journals such as Magma, International Times, Ink Sweat and Tears, Aesthetica, Orbis, Vox Populi, The Mackinaw, The Ekphrastic Review, Cambridge Poetry, The Fenland Reed, Poetry on the Lake, Sindh Courier, European Poetry, Verse Virtual, Magique Publishing, Primelore, DeshUSA, Verseum Literary, Stigmalogou, Area Felix, Cnpnews (South Korea), MasticadoresUSA, Gas: Poetry, Art and Music, Chewers by Masticadores. The Journal of Transnational Literature, The Wordsmith Literary E-Magazine, Alessandra Today Magazine, Nacional, The Daily Global Nation, Oceano News, Saturno Magazine, A Too Powerful Word, The Rhythm of Vietnam, Green Trail Poetry Book by Noble Gas, ‘Letopis Matice srpske’, ‘The Yearbook of Matica Srpska’, founded in 1824, Serbia, Jade Moon, Chinton, etc.
海伦·普莱茨（Helen Pletts，1960–）
海伦·普莱茨是中国诗人马永波诗歌的英文合作译者，CB1诗歌协会 的委员会成员，这是英国剑桥市中心一项历史悠久的每月诗歌朗诵 活动。海伦的作品已被译为汉语、孟加拉语、希腊语、越南语、塞尔维 亚语、韩语、阿拉伯语、意大利语、阿尔巴尼亚语和罗马尼亚语。海伦 与马永波共同创作了正在进行的“马永波诗歌公路之旅 – 2025 年夏” 系列档案，2025年5月10日起由《国际时报》发表。 普莱茨五度入选布里德波特诗歌奖短名单（2018、2019、2022、2023、2024），两度入选《里亚尔托》自然与地方诗歌奖长名单（2018、2022），一次入选银杏生态诗歌奖长名单（2019）、一次入选国家诗歌大赛长名单（2022），获广场散文诗大赛亚军（2022-23）并再度入选该奖项短名单（2023-24)。2026 年 7 月，她荣获香港文学艺术奖，该奖项由《 香港文艺》杂志设立，用以表彰在文学创作、艺术表达与文化交流领 域取得杰出成就的创作者。她出版的三部诗集包括与罗米特·伯杰合作的插图诗集《你的眼睛守 护着软趾雪花莲》（2022年，ISBN 978-9-657-68177-0，伽马诗歌），以 及由青年作家组织/传奇出版社在艺术委员会资助下出版的两部早期 诗集《瓶子银行》（2008年，ISBN 978-1-84923-119-0）与《致训诫之鸽》（2009年，ISBN 978-1-84923-485-6）。其获奖散文诗收录于《广 场奖选集》和《麦基诺》杂志，生态诗歌见于“沃普尔”出版社、“打开快 门”出版社与“墙头蝇”出版社的选集。作品广泛发表于《国际时报》《 民众之声》《墨汗泪》《美学》《奥比斯》《麦基诺》《述画评论》《剑桥诗刊》 《沼地芦苇》《湖上诗刊》《信德信使》《欧洲诗歌》《诗虚拟》《魔幻出版》《原始传说》《德胡萨》《诗界》《理念的圣痕》《菲利克斯领域》《韩国联合新闻网》《美国咀嚼者》《跨国文学》《文字匠》《今日亚历山德拉》《全球国家日报》等国际期刊。中文译本由马永波发表在《新大陆诗刊》《文学天地》《散文诗》《白银》《诗参考》《北斗国际诗坛》《文字禅》《诗歌风赏》《香港文艺》《蓝鲨》等期刊。
The Singing Sands, photograph taken by Ma Yongbo 马永波 3rd July 2026, and sent to Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨 by WhatsApp during his visit to Dunhuang, Gansu Province, Northwestern China, Planet Earth, The Universe
All images and poetry under individual copyright © to Ma Yongbo 马永波 and Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
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