Homeland.

Morejon, Nancy

HOMELAND

 Deep down, this rocking chair brings together
 the sweet airs of the violin
 and the drumming of the little chinese box,
 all in all, the melody of the danzon
 on late Sunday aftemoons.
 The fragrance of Brindis de Salas' music
 floated on that jungle, too,
 trembling like the heart of my homeland.

PATRIA

 Este sillon enlaza en sus adentros
 los dulces aires del violin
 y los compases de la cajita china,
 en fin, la melodia del danzon
 en los atardeceres de domingo.
 E1 perfume de Brindis de Salas
 iba flotando tambien en la manigua
 temblando como el corazon de la patria.

Editorial note: From With Eyes and Soul: Images of Cuba, ed. Dennis Maloney, photographs by Milton Rogovin. Copyright [c] 2004 by White Pine Press, Buffalo, New York (www.whitepine.org). Reprinted by arrangement with the publisher.

* Editorial note: Bodoni is a typeface; a reglet is a flat piece of wood used to separate lines of type.

NANCY MOREJON (b. 1944) is director of the Center for Caribbean Studies at the Casa de las Americas in Havana, a member of the Academia Cubana de la Lengua, and an advisor for the Teatro Nacional de Cuba. One of the foremost Cuban writers and intellectuals of her generation, her publications include several books of poetry and theater as well as critical studies of Cuban history and literature. In 2001 she won Cuba's Premio de la Critica for her verse collection La quinta de los molinos, and in 2002 she helped honor Roberto Fernandez Retamar as the fellow of the Puterbaugh Conference on World Literature at the University of Oklahoma (see WLT, Summer-Autumn 2002, 27, 52-53).