"Magpies on the Chimney" by Ma Yongbo

Magpies on the Chimney

At the top of the red-brick square chimney on the roof,
a few magpies form a circle, motionless for a long time.
The color of the snow on the roof hasn't changed yet,
on the wooden face of the house, only gray wrinkles remain.
The desolate yard, the wind without nerves,
hangs on the fence like withered yellow vines.

No smoke has risen from the chimney yet,
the magpies' gray full dress are still new,
they resemble boys from a neighboring village
arriving early for the ball,
winter's frozen clouds and smog inextricably intertwined.
the red sun's cruise ship
slowly sinking in the afternoon woods.

The magpies squat on the chimney, looking down,
the pitch-black chimney like a deep well,
leading to a quiet room.
There is no sharp scent of burning pine branches,
no light, perhaps the owner isn't home,
the magpies and I know nothing.
Perhaps they are mourning a companion,
who jumped down and never made a sound.

Far away, the cooking smoke has never risen,
those few lonely little houses
seem like we've never been there.

~

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 has published over eighty original works and translations since 1986, including 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) is comprised of 1178 poems, celebrating 40 years of writing poetry.