Mentions in Italian Bookshelf of «Annali d'Italianistica»
There are two reviews of our newest Amelia Rosselli translation, "The Dragonfly," in the new ITALIAN BOOKSHELF «Annali d'Italianistica» 42 (2024).
This is a subscription journal for Italian literature and language academics, so unfortunately we can't share them in full— but it is always reaffirming to see mentions of our books.
Marianna Orsi, University College School London:
They also maintain Rosselli’s ambiguity, making no attempt to decode it, welcoming rather than deciphering it (70). The poet talks about both the rotational movement of the dragonfly’s wings as a figure of liberty and of a circular, cyclic conception of time, conveyed in the text by the abundant repetitions, both semantic (“I don’t know” is repeated forty-one times) and rhetorical (anaphora, epiphora, anadiplosis, epizeuxis). The English translation certainly maintains the first, and several instances of the second.
Roberta Bienetti, Università di Padova:
The translation skillfully navigates Rosselli’s intricate linguistic terrain, capturing the poem’s vertiginous tone and kaleidoscopic sense of images. In the opening sequence “La santità dei santi padri era un prodotto sì cangiante” (6-7), Antognini and Woodward demonstrate a keen understanding of Rosselli’s wordplay and surreal imagery; they maintain the ambiguity and evocative quality of the original text, allowing English-speaking readers to immerse themselves fully in the poem’s linguistic acrobatics...
Reading La Libellula in Antognini’s and Woodward’s translation is a profoundly rewarding experience, offering readers a glimpse into the visionary mind of one of Italy’s most innovative poets.