“There Is No Word for Sex in Tagalog” by Noel Mateo

look it up

you won’t find it anywhere

it’s not in the dictioinary

instead – metaphors for the unspoken

euphemisms blinding enlightenment

implied in its mystery

something comes lose

a word of the streets

where sex was thought to belong –

whisper kantotan in their ears

with mischief in your eye

guilt, maybe shame

the titi and the puki

spoken in the adolescent murmurs

sex in the shadows

assumed knowledge

repressed and pretended

to be there but never spoken of

talong the long eggplant

dark purple smooth phallic

saging ni pasing

ITT CO MAKATI

ang titi ko malaki

you wish

mani and cherry

who’s afraid of vagina cool

hidden underneath the saya

all covered in guilt

why you so afraid of it

Filipina the mahinhin

Pinoy must be lalaki

he who must wear the pants

after all these years

still a Catholic colony

you had to have done it sometime

too many of you

for immaculate conceptions

or sitting on public toilets

so give it a name

call it wonderful

God’s gift to you

you beautiful and tragic tongue

Paraphrase: There is no direct translation for the word “sex” in Tagalog. Instead, there are other Tagalog words that are used to implicate the word.

Analysis: The speaker suggests that because there is no word for “sex” in Tagalog, that the Filipino people are trying to uphold a pure and chaste reputation. However, there are “too many of you / for immaculate conceptions” for that clean reputation to be true. Because of this, the speaker wants the Filipino people to just “give it a name” already!

Why I chose this poem: I am half Filipino, but my father unfortunately did not teach me Tagalog as I was growing up, so I am taking an introductory college course in Filipino right now. So far, I have not been able to find a Filipino word for “sex!”