on the night there are no stars
we are left with complete whiteness.
Lamplight in a haze of white creates a surreal white coverlet,
and even the spreading black trees are dazed.
A dense curve of milky cloud covers us
and as there is no one looking back at us,
nothing sending back a searching light,
we stand within the black of the trees;
their darkness imagining the stars with us
27th November 2024
在无星的夜晚
我们被留给完全的白色。
灯光在白雾中织出一片超现实的白色被单，
连四散的黑树也一片迷茫。
一片弧形的乳白色浓云笼罩着我们
既然没有谁在回望我们，
也没有什么送回搜寻的光，
我们便立在树的黑影中；
它们的黑暗与我们一同想象着星辰。
cold has sharpened the stars
cold has sharpened the stars
night leaning over us, coal-black clear;
revealing the rows of silver eyes
that move with us
23rd November 2024
寒冷磨砺了群星
寒冷磨砺了群星
夜倾斜在我们上方，煤黑色的清澈
显露出一排排银色的眼睛
随着我们一同运动
we are the weeping spring rain
spring—dew—sorrowful. The dark ebbing waves of dew
landing and crashing on the late winter shore has wrung
late tears from us. And yet still light has such brightness,
and spring light cannot understand her own weeping.
She breaks through holes in the clouds and the rain follows
as thin grey threads
13th March 2025
我们是哭泣的春雨
春天——露水——哀愁。消退的暗露之潮
拍打并碎裂在冬末海岸，拧出
我们迟来的泪水。光芒依旧这般明亮，
春光却无法理解自己的哭泣。
她将云层破出孔洞，雨水紧随其后
如纤细的灰线
2025年3月13日
black, moon and then Venus
Venus brighter than all of us. Her light has climbed
and left us standing here beneath her
everything is dimmer; even the sliver of rocking silver
is dimmer. In darkness the wood has disappeared
but a twig twists across my forehead,
darkness has pointed fingers; refuses to be still
as Venus holds us
4th January 2025
黑暗、月亮，然后是金星
金星比我们所有人都亮。她的光攀升而起，
将我们留在这里，伫立在她下方。
一切都暗淡下来；甚至摇晃的银月。
黑暗中，树林消失了，
却有一根小枝扭曲着划过我的前额，
黑暗有着尖尖的手指；拒绝静止，
当金星将我们拥抱。
2025年1月4日
her silver is our visitor
moonlight, soft on the house has stolen in beside us.
The still floor is suddenly ignited; he matches the squares of light-fall
through glass; and she is captured between chair legs.
The empty tabletop displays her as a squared and levelled
white beach; the silvered wood shimmering and shining like a white mirror.
She falls, and lingers; pulling us towards her
31st January 2025
她的银辉是我们的访客
月光轻轻地潜入屋内，依傍在我们身旁。
静止的地板骤然被点燃；透过玻璃
他投下光的方格；而她被困在椅子腿之间。
空荡的桌面将她展示为一片方正而平整的
白色海滩；镀银的木头微光闪烁，如一面白色的镜子。
她坠落，又逗留不去；牵引着我们向她靠近。
2025年1月31日
night falling in a moonlit window
night loosening his curves becomes darkness in a square of flat black;
the moon wearing her white roundness, in the waning glass.
Night spreads, the white circle avoids, until darkness
is suddenly pulled by the clouds; reflected in a trap of shuddering white
夜晚降临在月光照亮的窗户
黑夜松开曲线，变成一片方形的纯黑；
月亮露出白色的圆润，在渐弱的玻璃窗上。
夜色扩散，白色的圆环退避，直到黑暗
突然被云层扯走；倒映在颤抖的白色陷阱中
2024年3月15日
suddenly I am the smallest silver in darkness
the loneliest voice, seeking reassurance. Extending black
has left me stranded; born as a silver strand in black
waking in smallness. Loneliness sifting through my bones
with the heaviness of darkness, brutal and forgetting
of a small silver light, that is just a small seam of quiet
15th March 2024
突然我成了黑暗中最小的一粒银
最孤独的声音，寻求安心。延伸的黑
已将我困住；在黑暗里诞生为一根银丝
在渺小中苏醒。孤独正筛过我的骨头
带着黑暗的沉重，残酷又遗忘
那粒微小的银光，不过是寂静的一道细缝
2024年3月15日
you as a row of silver white lights in the darkness
and the hedge growing parallel to the window frames you well;
white edges darkness, bright edges darkness, and light is a bright
missing white edge in darkness. And the row of tiny lights have disconnected;
white eyes hovering. And between them are the missing spaces
of you in darkness; even the windowsill cannot hold you
16th March 2025
你是黑暗中的一串银白光点
与窗框平行生长的树篱将你框住；
白色镶着黑，亮处也镶着黑，光只是黑暗中
一道消失的白边。那排小光点已经断开；
白色的眼睛悬浮。它们之间的空缺
是黑暗中的你；连窗台也留不住
2025年3月16日
it is raining, first spring rain falling in darkness
grey gathering in the soft bodies of wild doves above the earth,
they are crowded and growing ever softer.
Darkness hiding behind their lighter feathers,
as they pull open the blossoms with their tiny beaks, one by one.
And I am opening. In the moment of openings I swim; my heart has greyness
and lightness and I am embedded; waiting for the axe to split the mountain
12th March 2025
下雨了，第一场春雨在黑暗中落下
灰色聚集在地面上野鸽柔软的身体里，
它们挤在一起，变得越来越柔软。
黑暗隐藏在它们较浅的羽毛后面，
它们用小小的喙一个个拉开花朵。
而我正在打开。在打开的那一刻，我游动；我心存灰色
和轻盈，我嵌入其中；等待斧头劈开山峰
2025 年 3 月 12 日
white petals obscuring darkness
and when he rearranges her she is oblivious to his curious resting arms,
outstretching, supporting the delicate structure of her. Her white light
not resting in darkness but extending into softness; the shape of softness
in white evolving. The white stems hovering, moving forwards, towards us
through his draping black; she is a white visitor centre-staging white.
Her persistent white petals breathing out white, obscuring his dark path
11th March 2025
白色花瓣遮蔽黑暗
当他摆弄她时，她没有察觉他那双好奇的手臂，
伸出来，托住她纤巧的形体。她的白光
不在黑暗中停留，而是延伸进柔软；柔软的形态
在纯白中演变。白茎悬浮，向前移动，穿过
他垂落的黑袍朝我们靠近；她是舞台中央的白色访客。
固执的花瓣不断呼出白色，遮蔽他黑暗的路径
2025年3月11日
Helen Pletts: (www.helenpletts.com) Shortlisted 5 times for Bridport Poetry Prize 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024, twice longlisted for The Rialto Nature & Place 2018 and 2022, longlisted for the Ginkgo Prize 2019, longlisted for The National Poetry Competition 2022. 2nd prize Plaza Prose Poetry 2022-23. Shortlisted Plaza Prose Poetry 2023-24. English co-translator of Chinese poet Ma Yongbo. She has three collections of poetry. Bottle bank (2008, ISBN 978-1-84923-119-0) and For the chiding dove(2009, ISBN 978-1-84923-485-6), containing a total of 45 poems, published by YWO/Legend Press (supported by The Arts Council). Your Eye Protects the Soft-toed Snowdrop, a collection of 11 years of Word and Image by Helen Pletts and Romit Berger (2022,ISBN 978-9-657-68177-0).
The title poem ‘Bottle bank’was longlisted for The Bridport Poetry Prize in 2006, under Helen’s maiden name of Bannister. The poem was first published by Charles Christian on Ink, Sweat and Tears, the poetry and prose webzine, on 20th June 2008 and as a podcast 14th December 2008. She is a regular contributor to this webzine. The title poem ‘For the chiding dove’ was translated into Italian by Gabriel Griffin and first published in ‘Poetry on the Lake Journal two’ (2009). She is also published in International Times.IT, Cambridge Poetry, Orbis, Aesthetica, The Fenland Reed, Voxpopulis,Polismagazino,European Poetry,Verse-Virtual,Verseum Literary. Her poems have been included in several anthologies published by Open Shutter Press, Fly on the Wall Press, and others.
马永波译
