Siege.

Morejon, Nancy

SIEGE

 Besieged by Bodonis, reglets, *
 folios and guillotines,
 this young man halts his labor
 as if searching for some quiet
 amid all the racket.
 The poetry of the paper
 has him firmly in its grasp,
 that's why he is taking stock of us
 in the prime of his life.

CERCO

 Cercado por Bodonis, corondeles,
 pliegos y guillotinas,
 este joven detiene la faena
 como buscando su quietud
 entre tanto rumor.
 La poesia del papel
 lo ha subyugado tanto
 que por eso nos esta contemplando
 en plenitud de vida.

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).