Vox Populi
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Ma Yongbo: Train to the Snow Country
This is a train without a starting point,
no one knows where it originates,
perhaps it emerges from the blue ocean, or the sky,
no specific location or name in the world
can carry its memories and hopes,
yet here we are, aboard.
This is a journey without an end,
Who can tell you what to do
After the fairy tale ends? How to proceed?
For instance, the story always concludes
with, “And they lived happily ever after,”
which often seems to imply monotony and isolation,
perhaps they should just part ways, no more entanglement.
Maybe build a wooden cabin dripping with resin in the forest,
or transport snow by sled beyond the mountains,
to trap the warmth of labor,
like wrapping a small white rabbit in a dogskin cap,
or just disappear, facing the vast silence,
perhaps getting off midway is an option,
at every small station, another version of you awaits departure.
The snow-laden pine branches grow even darker,
the train buried beneath snow, with low windows,
the whistle blows, the fire roars, the coal shines black,
no driver, no conductor,
friends celebrate in the warm carriage,
with fine bubbly wine, ribbons, laughter, and cheers,
Even those who have long departed silently join in.
Translated from the Mandarin by the author.
Yongbo Ma is a professor of American literature at Nanjing University Of Science And Technology
Copyright 2024 Ma Yongbo
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How that poem is full of beauties! How the imaginative spaces you offer us are welcome! When I read the words: “build a wooden cabin dripping with resin in the forest,” I felt such gladness for that image. I could smell the resin. I stopped there, for a long moment, quietly. Thank you for that. Being a passenger on that train, along with so many of your readers feels so peacefully consoling. There might be a few “now what”, there might be moments of questioning. But knowing that
the whistle blows, the fire roars, the coal shines black,
no driver, no conductor,
friends celebrate in the warm carriage,
with fine bubbly wine, ribbons, laughter, and cheers,
Even those who have long departed silently join in.
gives me solace, consolation.
How I will — often — come back to be on that train!
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Yes, it was that scent of resin
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What a lovely comment! Thank you.
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Thank you for all the dialogues you create with your poetry comments on Vox Populi. Yours is a powerful voice and a wise one…
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Thank you for your warm words. Yes, nature can always or most of the time give us comfort. Even if things always end, we still have to cheer in the process, just like you said.
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Thank you Michael for giving this little poem a safe home. and I would like to thank Deborah for making me associated with this magazine, which I cherish very much. what a blessing!
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You bring so much to our community, Yongbo! Thank you.
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Breathtaking! I practice Zen Buddhism, and edit works on East Asian culture and history, so I see here some familiar themes and threads and tropes—worked into one fine narrative that is enriched by and also transcends the local. A poet to follow, for sure.
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Zen Buddhism, and edit works on East Asian culture and history……That’s great! Can you read Chinese? Thank you for your attention. Although I have been immersed in English and American literature for more than 40 years, the tradition of Chinese culture is an invisible and powerful existence in my bones. However, I am sometimes considered a bit “Westernized” in the Chinese poetry world.
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Sometimes we need to rekindle joy, even in the trackless waste. Keep the carriage warm, many of us will be joining you there. Even those of us long gone from such a party.
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Well-said, Jim.
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Well said! The visible and the invisible, the presence and the absence, are always like the bright side and the dark side of the moon.thanks much!
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This is such a beautiful and magical poem, Yongbo, revealing once again, the wonderment that is typical of your amazing poetry
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Helen, I love the work you are doing now.
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Thank you Michael, you are most kind
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Try myr best to capture the miraculous moments in ordinary days through poetry. Thank you Helen for your continued support.
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We too are on that train, without a starting point and without an end, buried beneath the snow. Now what?
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Yes, now what?
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we don’t know why and when, we are on a train, and every stop may be the end. and what? maybe we should throw Heidegger off the train into the Black Forest first
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Throwing Heidegger off the train sounds like a good idea to me. No nazis allowed on our train!
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Michael, being able to chat with you here makes up for the lack of Facebook. I haven’t seen any news from Deborah these days, I need to write to her separately，I always wish her to read my poems first. Her opinion is very important to me.
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