Selected Poems

Distinguished Cuban poet Pablo Armando Fernandez makes a meeting place for different cultures, for myth and history, for nationality and exile, for sorrow and pride in Parables: The Selected Poems, culled from his 40-year career and introduced by Margaret Atwood. Fernandez often alludes to biblical rhetoric and imagery as he gives precise descriptions of vague icons (""What the dead mouths say is that man/ came in the change of light"") and sweeping political configurations (""Revolution,/ in the beginning are the words,/ heroic, it is difficult to tell the facts""). Though his work has been published in English-language periodicals like the New Left Review and Arts in Society, this is his first Spanish/English volume. Recipient of the Premio Nacional de Literatura in 1996 for lifetime accomplishment, and formerly the Cultural Counselor to the Cuban Embassy in London, Fernandez has returned to Cuba. (Sept.)