Nancy Morejón (Cuba: 1944- )
Best known and most widely translated woman poet of post-revolutionary Cuba. She addresses issues of ethnicity, gender, history, politics, and Afro-Cuban identity. These topics are carefully woven in her poetry integrating the Spanish and African experience. She celebrates blackness as her predecessors did: Nicolás Guillén and Lydia Cabrera. Recipient of numerous literary awards (The Critic's Prize 1986 and Cuba's National Prize of Literature 2001), Nancy Morejón believes that she's "Nancy Morejón, an individual, a unity who can't be subdivided into parts..." http://www.smith.edu/poetrycenter/poets/nmorejon.html
Best known and most widely translated woman poet of post-revolutionary Cuba. She addresses issues of ethnicity, gender, history, politics, and Afro-Cuban identity. These topics are carefully woven in her poetry integrating the Spanish and African experience. She celebrates blackness as her predecessors did: Nicolás Guillén and Lydia Cabrera. Recipient of numerous literary awards (The Critic's Prize 1986 and Cuba's National Prize of Literature 2001), Nancy Morejón believes that she's "Nancy Morejón, an individual, a unity who can't be subdivided into parts..." http://www.smith.edu/poetrycenter/poets/nmorejon.html
"Pudiera," recited by Lydia Delamatta.
Pudiera - Nancy Morejón
pudiera yo quebrar cualquier
travesura de un niño callejero
de esa calle que nunca está iluminada de flores
pudiera hablar de mi país
y sus alcances
sin temblarme la voz
o sentir gotas de agua entre mis manos
súbitamente tengo que hablar
de mis temores a no convertirme en eco
o tal vez creer que la vida se cierne
en mí misma
pudiera yo quebrar cualquier
travesura de un niño callejero
de esa calle que nunca está iluminada de flores
pudiera hablar de mi país
y sus alcances
sin temblarme la voz
o sentir gotas de agua entre mis manos
súbitamente tengo que hablar
de mis temores a no convertirme en eco
o tal vez creer que la vida se cierne
en mí misma