With aching hands
I walk
the paper journey
just to catch your eye.

I strike out, rewrite
just to earn a good name from you.
Page after page, I tear out
just so you will not tear me up.

I write
just so I can read you.

In the bookstores,
not only my books,
but you are there too.

Don’t search for me
on the cover—
that is my mask.

© KTM Iqbal. Translation © 2016 by Sulosana Karthigasu. All rights reserved. Translated as part of Translators Lab 2015, co-organized by The Select Centre and Writers’ Centre Norwich. The Tamil-to-English track was facilitated by Subashree Krishnaswamy and Lakshmi Holmstrom.