Xi’an at night – Yongbo is back in the City that never sleeps
A monument in Xi’an to the powerful horses of the Tang dynasty. The most famous white horse of the Tang dynasty is “Zhao Yebai”.
from the perspective of “Night-Shining White”,
“Zhao Yebai” the favoured steed of the Tang Dynasty (618–907 C.E.)
emperor Xuanzong—for Yongbo
从”照夜白”的视角
——为永波而作
（唐玄宗的宠驹“照夜白“）
before the red lights continuously evaporating neon,
there was only the moon and her vague imaginings.
Red confined and squared in the box-seal print on a painting
of a bright white horse outshining white moonbeams,
on a shiny floor mirror of rainwater rising,
flexing a horse-moon from a sinking basin,
a white horse-moon breaking a captive reflection,
liquid loosening shimmering white-horse moon-skin;
white horse-moon outshining everything.
A Tang man standing,
was the last to arrive, and the last to leave,
left standing, gazing at the whiteness and brilliance;
the spectacle of the riderless brightness as king
19th May 2025
Response Poetry By Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Response Poetry translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波 译
Helen Pletts, Cambridge 2025
从”照夜白”的视角
——为永波而作
（唐玄宗的宠驹“照夜白“）
from the perspective of “Night-Shining White”,
“Zhao Yebai”the favoured steed of the Tang Dynasty (618–907 C.E.)
emperor Xuanzong—for Yongbo
在红灯持续蒸腾霓虹之前，
唯有明月与她朦胧的幻想。
红色禁锢在一幅画作的方印里
一匹皎皎白马比月光更耀眼。
雨水漫涨成光亮的地板镜面，
从下沉水盆中屈伸出马形明月，
一匹白马之月冲破禁锢的倒影，
液态银辉浸染白马之月肤；
白马之月凌越万象。
一个唐时的人伫立，
最后一个抵达，最后一个离开，
留下身影，独对那片洁白与璀璨；
没有骑手的光辉如王者般壮观
2025年5月19日
海伦·普莱茨
The Moon and the White Horse 月亮与白马
The moon rises from layered clouds,
shining over the great river’s expanse.
The moon carves the tiniest waves,
it lights the white horse, the frost on its back.
The white horse stands by the river,
head bowed, motionless.
On the shield beneath its hooves, ruins lie,
the white horse is deep in thought.
The river’s current slows,
the riverbed is full of knives,
trembling ripples push toward the banks.
The white horse withstands the darkness,
returning with the moon to a deserted homeland.
by Ma Yongbo 马永波
translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波 译
Night-Shining White “Zhao Yebai” 照夜白, also the title of Ma Yongbo and Helen Pletts’ forthcoming bilingual poetry book, from Pete Taylor, Open Shutter Press, 2025
More here about the painting of “Zhao Yebai” by Han Gan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night-Shining_White
月亮与白马 The Moon and the White Horse 马永波
月出层云
照耀大河上下
月亮雕刻最细小的波浪
它照着白马，马背上的霜
白马站在河边
垂着头一动不动
脚下的盾牌上一片废墟
白马在沉思
河水放慢了速度
河床上都是刀子
震颤的波纹向河岸推送
那白马忍住了黑暗
和月亮一起回到无人的故乡
马永波
Ma Yongbo 马永波, Xi’an, China 2025
Ma Yongbo and Helen Pletts’ white horses are running together across the world… including Cambridge…
FUTURE KARAOKE as part of the 50th ANNIVERSARY of the CAMBRIDGE POETRY FESTIVAL, Director Angus Allman,
with compere, and reader, Dan Leighton, poet and Editor, Cambridge Poetry https://www.cambridgepoetry.com/
WITH Emma du Toit, Rosa Koehler, Candy Smellie, James Womack, Jon Stone, Melissa May, Sam Wigmore, Andrea Porter, Emma Gant, Anna Shelton, Jac Harmon, N’Gadie Roberts, Jonathan Morley, Freya Sacksen, Sarah Kenner, Ma Yongbo, Helen Pletts, Stewart Carswell, Jeremy Hubbard, Tristram Fane Saunders
“Inspiring events like Future Karaoke are the backbone of poetry, they are keeping poetry alive, social, and fun” Angus Allman
Ma Yongbo reading ‘Pegasus Rising’ by Helen Pletts, played, at Future Karaoke, Cambridge Poetry Festival, before Helen read her English version.
pegasus rising
(written for Future Karaoke,
Tuesday, 17th June 2025
The Devonshire Arms, Cambridge)
they appear white and ornate, but these wings are for rising.
Ask any bird how good it feels to leave the earth,
spiralling upwards on a thermal. No sense of icarus-frailty,
falling is optional; changing gears with real wings is simpler
than just losing wax and quills and sons.
I have tasted cloud, pre-acid rain was sweetest.
Eating landscapes falling from above, my mouth open
in white snowstorms, swallowing the heavy whiteness.
Night is one black gulp of solitude. Daylight is circumspect,
gradually breaks blueness into hot sun; ever hotter. At its hottest,
it is white-hot, blank with oblivion, obscuring sight, and senses.
20th May 2025
by Helen Pletts 海伦·普莱茨
Translated by Ma Yongbo 马永波 译
Overall theme : Beers. The beers from Milton Brewery are often named after mythical or historical figures or places, providing a fascinating starting point.
Chosen poem prompt: Pegasus—Winged horse born of Medusa’s blood; in Greek Myth a symbol of poetic inspiration, transcendence and the interplay between earth and sky.
飞马腾空 马永波 译
（为2025年6月17日周二
剑桥德文郡 Arms酒吧
未来卡拉OK之夜而作）
看似洁白繁复，这双翅膀生来就要翱翔。
去问飞鸟，挣脱大地的感觉多么美妙，
乘着热流盘旋而上。没有伊卡洛斯的脆弱，
坠落只是选择；用真实的羽翼换挡，
远比失去蜡羽、翎毛和子嗣简单。
我尝过云的味道，酸雨之前最为清甜。
吞食从天而降的风景，我张口
在白色暴雪中，咽下沉甸甸的纯白。
黑夜是孤独的一口豪饮。白昼则是小心翼翼，
将蔚蓝渐次碎成炽热的阳光；愈演愈烈。
至盛之时的白热化，因遗忘而空白， 遮蔽视线与感官。
2025年5月20日
海伦·普莱茨
HELEN PLETTS 海伦·普莱茨 is a British poet based in Cambridge, whose work has been translated into Chinese, Bangla, Greek, Vietnamese, Serbian, Korean and Italian. She is the English co-translator of Chinese poet Ma Yongbo.
Helen’s poetry has garnered significant recognition, including 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).
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 her eco-poetry appears in anthologies from Open Shutter Press and Fly on the Wall Press. Her work is widely published in journals such as International Times, Vox Populi, Ink Sweat and Tears, Aesthetica, Orbis, The Mackinaw, Cambridge Poetry, The Fenland Reed, Poetry on the Lake, Polismagazino.gr, europeanpoetry.com, Verse-Virtual.org, Magique Publishing, Primelore.com, Deshusa.com, Verseum Literary, Stigmalogou.gr, Area Felix, New World Poetry (Chinese)—four of her prose poems, translated by Ma Yongbo, opened the 35th Anniversary Edition dedicated to prose poetry, December 2024.
Publisher Kate Birch describes her work: “Helen’s very personal poetry reveals her strong connection to the natural world while also laying herself open emotionally. She writes with a thoughtful, mesmerising delicacy on love and death, on joy and need, illness and exhaustion.”
“I enjoy this collection of poems—Helen has restored her individuality into different animals, plants, and even more tranquil scenes, and this process is neither passive nor deliberately planned. Clearly, this new type of relationship between humans and nature not only opens up a new world for us but also places us in the most fitting position within it. The translator’s non-subjective handling of language style, along with the retention of structures like post-positioned adverbs, allows Helen (who can also be seen as the modern human subject) to faithfully present her sense of restoration within the concise framework of Chinese. Their joint effort gives readers the trinitarian nature of the medium, that precious power which expands through the natural, spiritual, and linguistic ecologies—clear, silent, and growing.” (Yan Rong, poet, PhD, professor)
海伦·普莱茨（Helen Pletts）是一位生活在剑桥的英国诗人，其作品已被译为中文、孟加拉语、希腊语、越南语、塞尔维亚语和意大利语。她是中国诗人马永波诗歌的英文合作译者。
普莱茨的诗歌创作屡获殊荣：五度入围布里德波特诗歌奖（2018、2019、2022-2024），两度入选《里亚尔托》自然与地方诗歌奖长名单（2018、2022），入围银杏生态诗歌奖（2019）、英国国家诗歌大赛（2022），获广场散文诗大赛亚军（2022-23）并再度入围该奖项决选名单（2023-24）。
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》，生态诗歌见于“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》《剑桥诗刊》《沼地芦苇》《湖上诗刊》《城邦》《欧洲诗歌》《诗虚拟》《魔法》《原始传说》《德胡萨》《诗界》《理念的圣痕》《菲利克斯领域》以及《新世界诗刊》（中文版）——其中四篇由马永波翻译的散文诗作为开篇之作，刊登于2024年12月出版的散文诗专号（创刊35周年纪念特辑）。
出版人凯特·伯奇如此评价她的作品：“海伦的诗歌极具个人特质，既展现了她与自然世界的深刻关联，又毫无保留地袒露情感。她以一种沉思的、令人着迷的细腻笔触，书写爱与死亡、欢愉与渴求、疾病与衰竭。”
“我享受这组诗——海伦把她的个人性还原到了不同的动物、植物甚至更为静谧的场景当中，而且，这个过程并非是被动发生和刻意谋划的；显然，这种人和自然的新型关系，不但为我们敞开了一个新的世界，也在其中安置了我们最为恰切的位置。而译者对语言格调的非主体性处理以及状语后置等形式的保留，让海伦（也可以看作是现代人类主体）的还原意识得以在汉语的简洁框架中忠实呈现。他们的共同努力则使读者获得了三位一体的介质属性，即那宝贵的扩展于自然生态、精神生态和语言生态中的清醒、沉默而生长的力量。”（晏榕，诗人，博士，教授）
MA YONGBO 马永波was born in 1964, Ph.D, representative of Chinese avant-garde poetry, and a leading scholar in Anglo-American poetry. He has published over eighty original works and translations since 1986 included 9 poetry collections.He focused on translating and teaching Anglo-American poetry and prose including the work of Dickinson, Whitman, Stevens, Pound, Williams and Ashbery. He recently published a complete translation of Moby Dick, which has sold over 600,000 copies. He teaches at Nanjing University of Science and Technology. The Collected Poems of Ma Yongbo (four volumes, Eastern Publishing Centre, 2024) comprising 1178 poems, celebrate 40 years of writing poetry.Baidu Encyclopedia entry on outstanding contemporary poets, Ma Yongbo is listed among the 100 most famous contemporary Chinese poets since the 1920s.
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.gr, europeanpoetry.com, Verse-Virtual.org, Magique Publishing, Primelore.com, Verseum Literary, Area Felix，Masticadoresusa，Feed the Holy，ONE, Sindhcourier，Lingo Lexicon，Worldinkers，Avantappalachia，Masticadorescanada，Madswirl，Collaborature，Allyourpoems，Homouniversalisgr，100subtextsmagazine，Pandemoniumjournal，Cultural Reverence，Rochford Street Review，Synchchaos，Ezra，Autumn Sky Poetry Daily，Nuthatchmag，Posit，Yumpu，Our Poetry Archive，All Your Poems，Subliminal.surgery，Atunis，Insightmagazine，Lothlorien Poetry Journal，Acheron，Gorkogazette，A Too Powerful Word，Chiron Review，Gas，Chewers，Medusaskitchen，Beatnikcowboy，Dear O Deer!，New Black Bart Poetry Society, Edge of Humanity，Liveencounters，Big Other etc.
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。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、威廉斯和阿什贝利的作品。他最近出版了《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。百度百科关于当代杰出诗人的词条中，马永波被列为20世纪20年代以来中国现当代最著名的100位诗人之
All images of Ma Yongbo 马永波 and China copyright © poet Ma Yongbo 马永波
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