Once I Mistook the Moonlight on the Sea

LiteraturePoetryTranslation
Written By Ma Xu (Tr. Jennifer Fossenbell & Zuo Fei)

 “Oh, once again I mistook things.”

FEBRUARY 27, 2025

 

The bodies of the waves darkened the sea.

I think of my heart as a vessel for sensitive matters.

In fact, I often mistake what’s going on around me.

Once I even mistook the moonlight on the sea,

while also mistaking one wave for another.

 

Oh, once again I mistook things,

and not even the sea corrected me in time.

 

You think I can be beautifully erroneous.

You are too quick to believe the fables of mermaids.

Let me tell you the truth:

In fact, that night there was no moon.

In fact there was no moonlight.

 

Nor was I at the sea at all.

I was but the body of a wave myself.

And when I came to understand this,

my heart went dark.

At that moment, a woman passed by.

At that moment, the space around me filled with darkness.

 

✺ Published in “Issue 25: Ghosts” of The Dial

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Ma Xu (Tr. Jennifer Fossenbell & Zuo Fei)

MA XU is the penname of Zhang Wenbing, born in 1959, and currently lives in Zhejiang. He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association, and his works have been selected for many domestic anthologies. He has been awarded the October Literature Award, the Poetry Prize at the God of Poetry Awards, and the Chu Jiwang Literary Award.,

JENNIFER FOSSENBELL lives in Denver, Colorado, where she works as a web editor, writer, and mother. Her poetry and other linguistic experiments have appeared in online and print publications in China, the U.S., and Vietnam, most recently Alluvium, So & So, Black Warrior Review, The Hunger, and where is the river. She also co-translated poems from the Vietnamese and Chinese, which have appeared in various anthologies and journals.

ZUO FEI is a Beijing-based university English teacher and writer who runs a poetry platform on WeChat, introducing foreign poetry to Chinese readers. She serves as the Chinese-language editor-in-chief of Spittoon Literary Magazine and was the featured poet of Spittoon Monthly in May 2020. Her essay collection, The Reed Cutter, was published by Guangxi Normal University Press.

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