NO DICTIONARY NEEDED

My body remembers

 

‘ALIKA NA!- come here

PALO –beatings

SINTURON –leather belt

TSINELAS – house slippers

SABUNOT- pulled hair

PINGOT- pinched ears

SINAKTAN MO AKO – you hurt me

BASTOS –rude

TARANTADO –stupid

ARAY ! – oww!

SUNTOK SA BIBIG –first striking mouth

KUROT –twisted pinch

BUWISIT – nuisance

IYAK –to cry

TANGA – empty-headed

TAMA NA! TAMA NA! – Stop it! Stop it!

PILAYAN – broken bones

GAGO! – dummy

LINTIK NA!- lightning will strike you down

PUTANG-INA MO – your mother is blessed

SUSMARYOSEP- Jesus Mary Joseph

SIRA ANG ULO MO – you’re crazy

WALANG MODO- you have no respect

And I don’t even know how to speak Tagalog.

 

 

We have borrowed this poem from the Literary Anthology AKDAAN 2

The poem is by Jo SiMalaya Alcampo. 

Jo SiMalaya Alcampo is an interdisciplinary artist born in Manila the capital of the Philippines and raised in Malvern in the heart of Scarborough.  She currently lives in the meeting place of Toronto (from the Haudenosaunee word, Tkaronto) on the historical territories of the Wyandot (Huron) Confederacy, the Petun, the Wendat people, the Haudenosaunee ("People of the Longhouse"), the Anishinabek Nation, and most recently the Mississaugas of the Credit River. 

Jo's art practice integrates storytelling, installation-based art, and electroacoustic soundscapes. Jo has developed community arts projects with queer youth, consumer/survivors of the mental health system, and migrant domestic workers.  

For more about the poet, please click here Jo SiMalaya Alcampo