from Parler peau (2019) [“Speaking Skin”]
Translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell
eyelashes against eyelashes inter-
section of skies in my own forest of
your eyes water fern which blush on
cheeks flatters lips against lips trans-
fusion of emotions becoming other
and self the absolute fragility when
everything opens and receives in the
fullness of love
without commitments we re-
main our eyelids lips breasts
rub against each other get wet
become heavy like the sails of a
ship confronting a gentle storm
confusion of sorrows cloths
foam of sheets and underthings
ocean of innocence where the
blades of time are broken inti-
macy moors our limbs together
to go beyond the winter of the
flesh
our two rogue waves cap-
size the cargo of boredom —
plunge to the bottom of moods
skin unfolded moistened —
suffused with air breathes and
cries out like none other ever —
in silence writing resurfaces a
sea bearing the horizon
the fire-red flower that blossoms
in our throats breathes out a
smile where a new language
is born where your words link
with the words of my tongue and
the other way round
talk to me touch me write
to me it’s all the same your
breath in my ear my saliva on
your chest surprising delicacy
and no one knows anything who
talks of love far from the electric
shocks that beat outside us our
new voices those of the lan-
guage between-us language of
eyes language of fingers and of
all that become one against
drownings and seasons
we are lying on this white
page where more carnal
still we rise I — open up
— my body
together we live write
surrender die are reborn
in the entrails of a twofold
solitude tongues blossom-
ing from skin
to write the way we make love
the way we squeeze our skins
between our fingers with the
imperturbable obstinacy of
mountains uprising and of the
force of living which wells up—
from desire
there’s nothing for it but to talk naked leg
folded over thigh fingers titillating there’s
nothing for it but to talk naked together
inside there’s nothing for it but to talk
naked our silences embracing
to contemplate the offering of
polished landscapes—your body
uncovered perfect in its warm
plenitude your tongue has melt-
ed the frozen sea in us it weeps
to find what sweet to the eye is
kept for hearts so much to read
in the alphabet of scars
our bodies like one single body
writing with abandon exposed
marrying risking its skin the cold
air emerges from pores we swal-
low the warmth that life restores
to us
neither night nor sun we are
almost no longer alone in the
embracing totality of the other
you owe me nothing you have al-
ready with skin given everything
Saigon-born French poet, novelist and literary translator Sabine Huynh grew up in Lyon, France, is the author of a dozen books, and of many translations. She has translated Anne Sexton, Ada Limón, Gwendolyn Brooks, Diane Seuss and Ilya Kaminsky, among others. Huynh’s own poetry collections include Kvar lo, which won France’s 2017 CoPo Poetry Prize, and Herbyers, a finalist for the 2024 Guillaume-Apollinaire award. Her second novel, Elvis à la radio, won the 2023 Jean-Jacques-Rousseau award. Her poetry book Speaking Skin (Parler peau), translated by Charlotte Mandell, is forthcoming with Black Square Editions.
Charlotte Mandell has translated over fifty books, including work by Mathias Énard, Jonathan Littell, and Paul B. Preciado. Her translation of War by Louis-Ferdinand Céline just came out from New Directions. Her translation of In the Shadow of Girls in Blossom by Marcel Proust is forthcoming from Oxford World’s Classics 2025, and her translation of Paul Valéry’s Monsieur Teste is forthcoming from NYRB Classics in December. She received the Thornton Wilder Translation Prize from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and she was recently given the honor of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.
World Poetry Review 