Live Encounters Poetry & Writing September 2025
Beginning of Autumn, poems by Ma Yongbo.
Beginning of Autumn
In the clear autumn, poetry is after all
a war of all against all
sparks glimmer at the end of the road
air currents settle into variegated dregs of wine in the valley
those who set out overnight drink at sea
slip on the glass greenhouse
The cracks in things make people secretly surprised
yet gladden the climbing sparrows
the wind has gone to the Ladakh Desert
embracing last year’s ghosts, in the caravan
debating theology all night with the Tartar princess
Fewer and fewer things we can do together, my beloved
for instance, rousing from sleep as one
slowly like a disease
in the increasingly empty and cool room
Dazed like children who has just had a haircut
Moments of Moths
In the evening, the wind suddenly rises
the windowpanes let out a wail
I stop my hands, listening the towering poplars
shake their dark green flames violently
I happen to be translating a poem
called “When I Am Old”
the twilight years, transient joys
A kind of solution slowly fills the room
on the sidewalk shaded by trees
there were originally many people standing
talking about things I cannot understand
The wind carries some cold fragments
there is still a group of bicycle teenagers in the square
wearing hoods, riding in smaller and smaller circles
Crickets sharpen their blades in the corner of the wall
someone always wants to hide me away
dazed moths appear, clinging tightly to the glass
their yellow is turning pink
Morning Song
Someone is groping his way upstairs in the dark
the heavy thud of his suede leather shoes
in the faint glow of dawn
seems to come from another neighborhood
He moves slowly, keeping the same rhythm
as if he’d been drinking all night outside
his coat still clings to the damp straw from Cavalry Street
At last he pauses before a tall dark green door
fumbling in his cold, rough large pocket
where blurrily patterned coins clinking
Inside the door, only darkness is listening
no one waits for him, no brass samovar
no rustle of a tweed plaid skirt
Dazed, like a soldier who’s fallen behind
a lighter hisses to life
a faint blue flame illuminates a face
handsome and pale, with an unreadable age
Morning Song
Someone is groping his way upstairs in the dark
the heavy thud of his suede leather shoes
in the faint glow of dawn
seems to come from another neighborhood
He moves slowly, keeping the same rhythm
as if he’d been drinking all night outside
his coat still clings to the damp straw from Cavalry Street
At last he pauses before a tall dark green door
fumbling in his cold, rough large pocket
where blurrily patterned coins clinking
Inside the door, only darkness is listening
no one waits for him, no brass samovar
no rustle of a tweed plaid skirt
Dazed, like a soldier who’s fallen behind
a lighter hisses to life
a faint blue flame illuminates a face
handsome and pale, with an unreadable age
Little Ballad
Just look at the clouds—
they know not birth, know not death,
never age, only dissipate.
Just look at the wind—
it knows not where it wants to blow,
it only knows to blow; wherever it goes,
there, the sound of wind arises.
Just look at those extra-long red trucks—
they pass by, pass on,
not knowing at which crossing they’ll turn,
on which road they’ll keep driving, keep going,
hauling half a load of branded livestock.
Just look at that cyclist—
his giant shadow, carrying two iron hoops,
chases him, chases after him.
Just look at the light—
radiant light, reflected light,
scattered light, misted light,
in the light, there’s always a great hand
gathering pale petals,
cold tears, shrinking bodies.
© Ma Yongbo
Ma Yongbo was born in 1964, Ph.D, representative of Chinese avant-garde poetry, and a leading scholar in Anglo-American poetry. He is the founder of polyphonic writing and objectified poetics. He is also the first translator to introduce British and American postmodern poetry into Chinese, making contributions that fill gaps, the various postmodern poetry schools in Chinese are mostly guided by his poetics and translation. 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, Amy Lowell,Williams, Ashbery and Rosanna Warren. He 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.