Cover image of ‘Night-Shining White’ by Ma Yongbo 马永波 and Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Original Graphic Art ‘Rain as our Ally’ specially created by Amber Hendriksson (née Pletts) ,28th March 2025 for Ma Yongbo 马永波 and Helen Pletts’ 海伦·普莱茨 Response Poetry. First Published, International Times, 5 April, 2025
https://internationaltimes.it/in-which-we-speak-of-the-rain-as-an-ally-for-ma-yongbo-我们把雨视为盟友-致马永波/
COVER DESIGN: Dan Leighton, Poet and Editor of Cambridge Poetry, BIO in Volume 46
https://internationaltimes.it/ma-yongbo-poetry-road-trip-summer-tour-2025-volume-46/
Night-Shining White
照夜白
The night thickens like asphalt, the long street lies silent,
a white horse whinnies low,
appearing in this seemingly deserted small town.
No one knows where it has come from
it sniffs the ashes beneath the threshold of every house,
it is the messenger and the message itself.
This town is the world, the galaxy, the universe and slumber,
only the faint sound of fallen leaves piercing the roof ridge,
the darkness indoors and darkness outdoors exchange breath.
Those glazed eyeballs turning secretly,
those cyan veins melting in shutter-like whites of eyes.
The white horse’s form brushes slowly past the painted wall,
its flesh sloughs away; its skull
grows longer and longer, knocking against the wall,
its ribs jut out, deathly pale,
chalks squeaking across a blackboard.
What is it searching for, where is it bound?
rose-tinted mountains, or a sea covered in fur?
No one knows, the town seems empty of people,
only morning light condenses into dew on the eaves.
only a single word hums faintly in the air.
Afternoon, September 7, 2026
Response Poetry By Ma Yongbo 马永波
Response Poetry Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波
照夜白
Night-Shining White
夜色浓稠有如沥青，长街寂寂
一匹白马低鸣，出现在这似乎无人的小镇
无人知道它的来处
它嗅着每一户人家门槛下的灰烬
它是信使，而信息就是它本身
这小镇就是世界、星系、宇宙和沉睡
只有落叶穿透屋脊的细碎声响
门里的黑暗和门外的黑暗交换着呼吸
那些暗中转动的上了釉的眼珠
那些快门般的眼白中融化的青色筋脉
白马的身影缓缓擦过斑驳的画墙
它的血肉在脱落，它的头骨
越变越长，在墙壁上磕碰着
它的肋骨越来越突出，惨白
黑板上吱嘎作响的粉笔
它在寻找什么，它去往了何处
是玫瑰色的群山，还是皮毛覆盖的大海
无人知道，这小镇似乎无人
只有晨光在屋檐上凝结成露水
只有一个词语，在空中微弱地鸣响
2026年9月7日下午
yours is a silver face above darkness—for Yongbo
你的面庞是黑暗之上的银辉——致永波
you stand and the screen is suddenly the sphere itself
the length of a quiet corridor across the earth,
and the measurements of the earth itself become your chest.
The curve of your flesh rises in a dark garment
the size of which we have to guess,
and in this moment of stillness
swans are moving the earth through the glass
7th September 2026 08:31am
I have bought Yongbo a black jumper
to wear at the launch of our book
and I think it is too big, I cannot work out
the equivalent of Chinese and English sizes
Response Poetry By Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Response Poetry in Chinese Translation by Ma Yongbo 马永波
你的面庞是黑暗之上的银辉——致永波
yours is a silver face above darkness—for Yongbo
你静立，屏幕骤然化作星球本身，
一条静谧长廊横贯大地，
其尺度尽数化为你的胸臆。
你身体的轮廓自深色衣衫间隆起，
其宽窄只能由我们猜想。
在这静谧一瞬，
天鹅正透过玻璃，移动这片大地。
2026年9月7日 上午08:31
我给永波买了一件黑色针织衫，准备在我们的诗集发布会上穿。
但我觉得衣服偏大，
我搞不清中国尺码和英国尺码该如何换算。
in going forwards in the language we know
我们在熟悉语言中前行
—in reply to Yongbo’s ‘Night-Shining White’
it writes us again in the watery brown fur smallness.
In the colourless hooves that materialise,
that turn over pages in the darkness,
that feel like the white becoming the many surfaces,
the softness and the firmness.
The salty air holds iridescence in sunlight
where stones as solid decades await us,
irrefutable gulls that work and play without limits,
we will be their anchors
risking fines to cast food into the air
See the sleek east coast become a storm;
belly-grey and lasting all day without breathing landscapes
through flared openings
9th September, late at night
Response Poetry By Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Response Poetry in Chinese Translation by Ma Yongbo 马永波
我们在熟悉语言中前行
in going forwards in the language we know
——回应永波《照夜白》
—in reply to Yongbo’s ‘Night-Shining White’
它以水汪汪棕褐毛皮里的微末重写我们。
那些凭空浮现的无色之蹄，
在黑暗中翻动纸页，
仿佛那白正在衍化为众多表层，
柔软，又坚实。
咸风裹着日光里的虹彩，
历经数十载的磐石在等候我们，
无可辩驳的鸥鸟在无拘无束地觅食嬉游，
我们愿做它们的依靠。
冒着被罚的风险，向空中抛洒食物。
看光洁的东海岸化为风暴；
腹部发灰，终日不散，没有喘息的风景
穿过翕张的罅隙。
9 月 9 日，深夜
Ma Yongbo 马永波 (Salmon) 2nd September 2026, being re-fuelled in hospital after a recent bout of illness, Nanjing, China, Planet Earth, The Universe
Reflections on the Cover Design of Night-Shining White
观《照夜白》封面设计有感
A rush of swarming shapes fills the view,
looking close, the swarm splits into two hosts:
one of British bumblebees,
one of Chinese wasps.
Neither of these makes honey
they gather pollen only,
hurling pollen bombs into innocent eyes.
They gather and scatter, humming each their own note,
two formations wheeling above the Seven Seas,
carrying vast nothingness within their bodies.
They never sting, nor harass any creature,
they merely gather and pollinate,
perhaps they pass the sweet burden
clung to their fuzzy legs
over to the smaller honeybees.
They fly all day, everywhere asking who stirred up the hornets’ nest,
and hurl pollen bombs into innocent eyes,
this is their sole purpose, their delight:
to create harmless, trivial trouble,
to make other bees forget, for a while, that autumn draws near.
Dawn, September 7, 2026😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃
By Ma Yongbo 马永波
观《照夜白》封面设计有感
Reflections on the Cover Design of Night-Shining White
扑面而来，密密麻麻，仔细一看
原来是蜂群分成两队：
一队是英国熊蜂
一队是中国马蜂
这两种蜂都不酿蜜
它们只采集花粉
向那些无辜的眼睛投掷花粉炸弹
它们时聚时散，发出各异的嗡鸣声
两支编队，盘旋于七海之上
身体里携带着巨大的虚无
它们从不蜇人，也不去骚扰动物
它们只是采粉，授粉
或许还会将毛茸茸腿上甜蜜的负担
转嫁给那些体型娇小的蜜蜂
它们整天飞舞，到处问是谁捅了马蜂窝
向那些无辜的眼睛投掷花粉炸弹
这是它们唯一的目的和乐趣
制造一点无伤大雅的小麻烦
让别的蜜蜂们暂时忘记秋天将至
2026年9月7日晨
bees moving the pages with their bodies
蜜蜂以身躯翻动纸页
the smallest and most intricate of sentinels
the dark and light finding the route map within a thorax
that spins in fur and perpetual tremor
as if flight were unnaturally shaking all the dust and dew
and us flung aloft with it, rising in the lines of light and dark.
We are the patterns that stay on the sand,
that the feet of thousands of years later will uncover
our bodies still pressing the pages together
7th September 2026 21:27,
tonight I have a cold, I have worked too hard,
to make sure ‘Night-Shining White’
by Ma Yongbo and Helen Pletts and ‘A Fourth Warming—
poetry of tales and memory by Mike Bannister, Ma Yongbo
and Helen Pletts, translated by Ma Yongbo’, are ready to launch
by the beginning of October, I am exhausted but I am
determined and both books are nearly ready to go to print
Response Poetry By Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Response Poetry in Chinese Translation by Ma Yongbo 马永波
蜜蜂以身躯翻动纸页
bees moving the pages with their bodies
最微小、最复杂的哨兵
明暗在胸腔里寻得路线图
在茸毛与不息的颤动之中旋转
仿佛飞翔正以异样的震颤抖落全部尘露
而我们随之被抛向高空，在明暗交织的线条里升腾。
我们是留存于沙上的图案，
千年之后涉足的人，将会发现。
我们的躯体依旧，将书页紧压在一起
2026 年 9 月 7 日，21:27
今夜我染了风寒，连日操劳过度，只为确保马永波、海伦・普莱茨合著的《照夜白》，
以及迈克・班尼斯特、马永波、海伦・普莱茨所著，马永波译的《第四次温暖 —— 故事与记忆之诗》,能在十月初顺利发布。我身心俱疲，但意志坚定，两本书都已临近付梓。
Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨 (Eel) 7th September 2026, Cambridge, UK, Planet Earth, The Universe
“I turned us into Eel and Salmon in the initial, bizarre Response Poem that I wrote to Yongbo, 19th September 2024 ‘a poet exists on a diet of air and darkness’, first published by International Times 22nd March 2025, and my poem and his reply are included in our forthcoming first bilingual collection ‘Night-Shining White’, Experiments in Fiction, Editor Ingrid Wilson. The fact that the colour salmon suits Yongbo, is entirely incidental and just a fascinating coincidence”, Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨 7th September 2026
https://internationaltimes.it/a-poet-exists-on-a-diet-of-air-and-darkness-靠空气和黑暗为生的诗人/
Cambridge Poetry Festival, event poster, 10th to the 11th October 2026, Cambridge, UK, Planet Earth, The Universe. Ma Yongbo 马永波 and Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨 will be reading, together, for the first time, ever, from their new bilingual poetry book ‘Night-Shining White’, which launches 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
Poster designed by Amber Hendriksson for Cambridge Poetry Festival, Chinese Poetry Workshop, to be taught in Chinese by Ma Yongbo 马永波 at Anglia Ruskin University at 1.30 pm, 10th October 2026
https://www.cambridgepoetryfestival.org/events/chinese-poetry-workshop-with-ma-yongbo
‘A rare opportunity to meet and learn about the development of Chinese Contemporary poetry from the man who has shaped Chinese Contemporary poetry for over 40 years’,
Cambridge Poetry Festival, October 10th, 2026, Cambridge, Planet Earth, The Universe
马永波主持的中文诗歌工作坊
2026年10月10日 下午1:30
安格利亚鲁斯金大学
这位影响中国当代诗歌四十余载的诗人首次到访英国，大家将有幸与他会面，并聆听他讲述中国当代诗歌的发展脉络。
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。他的《白鲸》全译本，销量已超过60万册。他任教于南京理工大学。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）。
题目:当代汉诗的客观化转折，从主体性到主体间性
主要内容:
第一章 叙述诗学：超离与深入
从垂直的歌唱到横向的叙说
从独白到对话和杂语
还原与超越
第二章 伪叙述诗学：写作的自反意识
倡导元文学意识的必要性与迫切性
元叙述的消解与伪叙述的由来
元语言评说
关于诗歌的诗歌
A rare opportunity to meet and learn about the development of Chinese Contemporary poetry from the man who has shaped Chinese Contemporary poetry for over 40 years, on his first visit here to the UK
Chinese Poetry Workshop, conducted in Chinese, in person, by celebrated Chinese poet and translator Ma Yongbo 马永波, 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. He has published over eighty original works and translations since 1986 including 9 poetry collections. His complete Chinese translation of Moby Dick has sold over 600,000 copies.
Topic: The Objectifying Turn in Contemporary Chinese Poetry, from Subjectivity to Intersubjectivity
Main Contents:
Chapter one – Poetics of Narrative: Detachment and Immersion
- From Vertical Chanting to Horizontal Narration
- Restoration and Transcendence
- From Monologue to Dialogue and Heteroglossia
Chapter two – Poetics of Pseudo-Narrative: Self-Reflexive Awareness in Writing
- The Necessity and Urgency of Advocating Meta-literary Awareness
- The Dissolution of Metanarrative and the Origin of Pseudo-Narrative
- Metalanguage Commentary
- Poetry About Poetry
Location
Anglia Ruskin University
East Road
Cambridge
Cambridgeshire
CB1 1PT
All images and poetry under individual copyright © to Ma Yongbo 马永波 and Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
.