the book of the lover.

have you seen the film called The Pillow Book? About a Japanese girl who has a fascination with having calligraphy painted on her skin, after a tradition where her father, a master calligrapher, would paint a birthday greeting on her face every year.

this is the text of the 6th book, written in Japanese symbols on Jerome s corpse and subsequently made into the Pillow Book. Sections of the text are later tattooed on Nagiko s body. the placement on the body of the symbols is indicated after each section.

THE BOOK OF THE LOVER –

this is a book and a body
that is so warm to the touch
my touch.                                                  (throat)

i have pressed this book to my eyes
to my forehead, to my cheeks,
i have held this book open across my belly.
i have sat smiling at this book
until my flesh felt wedded to its covers.
i have sat laughing on this book until i have moistened its covers
with my body.                                        
i have wrapped this book around my legs.
i have knelt on this book until my knees bled.     (chest)

this book and i have become indivisible.
i have placed my feet on this books last pages,
confident of standing so much higher in the world
than i ever stood before.
may i keep this book forever.
may this book and this body outlast my love.
may this body and this book love me as i love
its length, its breadth, its thickness, its text,
its skin, its letters, its punctuation, its quiet and its noisy pages.
its tickling delights.
book, body – i love you.                       (belly and thighs)

it breathes gently in its first page
it breathes deeper as the pages turn.
when the rythm of reading is ensured, the words gain a roaring speed
and the pages race.
i have raced with these pages.           (back)

at its ending there is a sigh and the book 
is closed in contentment.
the reader willing begins again.

body and book are open.
face and page.
body and page.
blood and ink.
fingers ends, ferruled edging.
the surface of each page is so smooth
the watermarks are like flushed veins
the pages are so harmonious in their proportion
disharmony in the contents is impossible.        (buttock)