Ma Yongbo: Frost on the Window

Translated from the Mandarin by Ma Yongbo and Helen Pletts

It is spring now and the frost on the window is gradually thinning.
Once it drew distant mountains and tangled trees on the glass.
Once it led a boy to an uninhabited path
and trapped the only shining light in a sinking net.
Of course, these are all just memories;
it cannot hold on to everything that is disappearing
allowing that boy to walk further and further on the window,
until today—a white trap.
Undoubtedly, frost is a product of the battle between coldness and warmth.
At night, it’s like a group of children peering through the window
longing for our warm lives
with wide, crystalline eyes. The first glimmer of the sun
starts in the frost on the window,
becoming louder and louder like a burst of praise.
I lean on the windowsill, watching the patterns on the glass
gradually turning into vapour with my breath,
transforming the window into a misty mirror
like the damp coldness between language and reality.

~~~~

窗上的霜  

已是春天，窗上的霜渐渐稀薄 
它曾在玻璃上画下远山和纠结的树丛
它曾把一个少年引上无人的小径
让惟一亮着的灯陷在下沉的网中
当然，这些都是回忆
它无法挽留正在消失的一切
让那个少年在窗上走出更远
直到今天——一个白色的陷阱
无疑，霜是冷暖交战的产物
在夜里，像一群孩子扒着窗户
窥视我们温暖的生活
睁大晶状的眼睛，而阳光最初的闪耀
也是从窗上的霜中开始的
越来越响亮，像一阵赞美 
我趴在窗台上，看窗上的花纹
渐渐化成一片水汽
和我的呼吸一起，把窗子变成氤氲的镜子
我们就透过这模糊的镜子观察事物
在语言和真实之间，触摸到潮湿的冷意

2001年3月11日

~~~~

Translation copyright 2024 Ma Yongbo and Helen Pletts. First published in Polis Magazine, edited by Eva Petropoulou Lianou 

Ma Yongbo is a Chinese scholar 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 half a million 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.

Helen Pletts is a poet and translator who lives in the UK. She has worked closely with Ma Yongbo since February 2024.