the painful song is a small vocal chord 痛苦的歌声是⼀个⼩⼩的 和弦

stretched along the stem of a blue violin
hollow and unhappy and wooden
and the voice of a wailing woman is the sudden
deep notes that you have not imagined,
written when sadness was ascending
with the composer poised like a starling
on a black wire stuck between two
telegraph poles, the message only going one
way, carried in the small feet of a single bird

4 November 2024

by Helen Pletts海伦·普莱茨
Image: Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967) Song of the Telegraph
1917-1952, watercolour on paper

Translation by Ma Yongbo ⻢永波 4 November 2024

痛苦的歌声是⼀个⼩⼩的和弦 the painful song is a small vocal
chord ⻢永波 译

沿着蓝⾊⼩提琴的琴杆伸展
空洞，不幸，⽊讷
⼀个⼥⼈的哀号声突如其来
是你想象不到的深沉⾳符，
写在悲伤上升的时候
作曲家像椋⻦⼀样栖息
在两根电线杆之间的⿊⾊电线上，
信息只沿⼀个⽅向传输，
被⼀只⻦的⼩脚携带

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