tatú / tattoo
By Philip Arneill
2 Nov 2009
Is pailmseist mo chorp faoi do lámha, paipír ársa scrollaithe fút, ag tnúth le do rian. Glanaim mo chraiceann, sciúraim siar é go pár báiteach ionas go bpúchfaidh do lámh mar dhúch tatuála, ag líníocht thar línte dofheicthegach (bean) fir eile.
Níl faic ach tusa scrábáilte ar mo chorp.
My body is a palimpsest under your hands, a papyrus scroll unfurled beneath you, waiting for your mark. I clean my skin, scrape it back to a pale parchment, so that your touch can sink as deep as the tattooist's ink, and leave its tracery over the erased lines of other (wo)men.
You are all that's written on my body.
by Nuala Ní Chonchúi (translated from Irish by the author)
