Nancy Morejon Nancy Morejón (b. 7 August 1944), Cuban poet. Born in Havana to Angélica Hernández and Felipe Morejón, she received a degree in French from the University of Havana. A translator, journalist, editor, and director of the Centro de Estudios del Caribe at Casa de las Américas, Morejón has published four critical studies and eleven collections of poetry. Her lyrical verse, shaped by an Afro-Cuban sensibility and a feminist consciousness, evokes the intimacy of family, the ephemerality of love, and the significance of Cuban history. Poems like “Black Woman” and “I Love My Master” have been widely anthologized and translated. In 1986, her work Piedra pulida won the Cuban Premio de la Crítica. She was the first black woman to win Cuba’s National Prize for literature, in 2001.
PRÍNCIPE NEGRO PARA GEORGE FLOYD Aunque su sueño era lanzarte al Mississippi, aquel caníbal de uniforme opaco ha quemado en silencio su rodilla sobre tu cuello inerte. El humo de tu carne va subiendo hasta el cielo mojado. Saltando entre las flores, el aire de tus bronquios persigue su fantasma hasta morder el colmillo sangriento del caníbal. Y tú alientas, indómito, sobre el asfalto húmedo, bajo la sombra quieta de un manzano en Minneapolis, donde colocaremos, para ti, este brillante, este limpio príncipe negro nuestro, a tu memoria. Cerro, 4 de junio, 2020
A CUBAN ROSE FOR GEORGE FLOYD Though he really wanted to hurl you into the Mississippi, that cannibal in deceptive uniform quietly burned his knee on your dying throat. The smoke rising from your flesh climbs to the tearful sky. Skipping between the flowers, the air you exhale pursues the cannibal's ghost until it bites his bloody fang. And, indomitable, you give hope, on the wet asphalt, under the quiet shade of an apple tree in Minneapolis, where we will place, for you, this bright, this cherished dark-red rose of ours, in your memory. Cerro, Havana, June 4, 2020 Trans. Keith Ellis
66
