Construction Literary Magazine

January 2017 Writers Respond

Vocabulary

Vocabulary
Photograph via Flickr by Didier Baertschiger

“Bokabularyo” by Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles translated as “Vocabulary” from Filipino by Kristine Ong Muslim

Nothing, you say

in the language of your hunger
to always create, to repeat yourself. You constantly need to

reiterate nothing

in your vocabulary
so that you won’t forget to remember having repeated

your word
Come, eat

the word
greater than your hunger

 

Bokabularyo


Wala, wika mo

sa bokabularyo ng iyong gutom
sa paglikha tuwina, ang ulitin ang sarili. Kailangan ulit

-ulitin ang wala

sa iyong bokabularyo
upang hindi malimot maalalang inuulit

ang sariling salita
Halika, kainin

ang salitang higit
malaki sa iyong gutom

 

Note: The Filipino original appeared in Guwang (High Chair, 2013).

 

 

 

Kristine Ong Muslim Kristine Ong Muslim is the author of We Bury the Landscape (Queen’s Ferry Press, 2012), Grim Series (Popcorn Press, 2012), and A Roomful of Machines (ELJ Publications, 2015), as well as four forthcoming books—the short story collections Age of Blight (Unnamed Press, 2016) and The Butterfly Dream (Snuggly Books, 2016) plus poetry collections Lifeboat and Black Arcadia, both of which will come out from university presses in the Philippines. Her poems and short stories have appeared in Confrontation Magazine, New Welsh Review, The Stat, and elsewhere. She lives in southern Philippines and serves as poetry editor of LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, a literary journal published by Epigram Books in Singapore. Visit her website. Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles’ 12 books in Filipino include, among others: Parang (High Chair, 2008), Alingaw (High Chair, 2010), Alinsunurang Awit (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2010), Antares (Aklat Kurimaw, 2010), Mal (High Chair, 2011), Mga Tala at Panaginip (High Chair, 2012), Guwang (High Chair, 2013), Pilas ng Papel: Mga Sanaysay sa Tula (De La Salle University Publishing House, 2013), and Pesoa (Balangay Books, 2014), a finalist for the Philippine National Book Awards in 2015. His volume of selected poems, Anima, will come out late this year from the Ateneo de Naga University Press. A recipient of multiple national awards and fellowships in the Philippines, Arguelles is co-editor of the journal hal., works as a book editor, and teaches literature and creative writing at the De La Salle University in Manila. Visit his website.