When Martina Benigni first picked up a poetry book in a Shanghai University bookstore, she did not expect it to introduce Italian readers to a new voice in contemporary Chinese literature.

A doctoral student at Sapienza University of Rome, Benigni studies Asian and African civilizations and has been learning Chinese for nearly a decade. In March last year, she came to China as an exchange student at Shanghai University. While browsing a campus bookstore with friends, one title caught her attention: Flying Low. She was told the poems were written by Wang Jibing, widely known in China as the "deliveryman poet".

Wang's life story is as striking as his writing. Now 56, he left school after junior high and spent years doing manual jobs before becoming a food deliveryman in 2018. Amid long hours on the road, he kept writing. To date, he has written more than 6,000 poems and published five poetry collections, earning a devoted readership for verses grounded in everyday labor and quiet resilience.

Moved by the poems' clarity and emotional weight, Benigni began translating several pieces into Italian. She shared the drafts with her joint supervisor, Professor Silvia Pozzi of the University of Milan-Bicocca, who encouraged her to seek official permission and bring Wang's work to a wider Italian audience.

In May 2024, with the help of a Chinese friend, Benigni contacted Wang directly and obtained authorization to translate his poem At Three in the Afternoon. One month later, the Italian version was published in Internazionale, one of Italy's most influential magazines.

The exchange did not end on the page. In July 2025, Benigni traveled to Kunshan, Jiangsu province, where she met Wang and his family for the first time. Sitting together, they talked about writing, daily life and the shared emotions that transcend language, despite different cultural contexts.

For Benigni, literary translation is more than an academic pursuit. "Translation is a bridge," she said. "Even readers who have never been to China can feel something of its atmosphere and its people through literature. That's why I believe translators carry a responsibility."