SKU: 62779599193

The Dragonfly

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The DragonflyLONG LISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL TRANSLATION AWARD! Congratulations to translators Roberta Antognini and Deborah Woodard. I rhyme classically with a modernity I didnt suspect in my imbroglios. Amelia Rosselli La Libellula (The Dragonfly) is Amelia Rossellis acknowledged first major work and contains all the elements of her mature vision: trilingual wordplay, musicality, and political engagement. "This translation by Roberta Antognini and Deborah

LONG-LISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL TRANSLATION AWARD!
Congratulations to translators Roberta Antognini and Deborah Woodard.

“I rhyme classically with a modernity I didn’t suspect in my imbroglios.” — Amelia Rosselli

La Libellula (The Dragonfly) is Amelia Rosselli’s acknowledged first major work and contains all the elements of her mature vision: trilingual wordplay, musicality, and political engagement.

"This translation by Roberta Antognini and Deborah Woodard magnificently mimics the clotted wordplay and knotted rhymes of Amelia Rosselli’s free verse. They also follow the Surrealist and Symbolist techniques and the incantatory repetitions with which Rosselli investigates religion, love, the self, justice, and injustice. Second-rate Surrealists baffle with unredeemed nonsense. Rosselli, in the hands of her translators, startles with unexpected connections and revealing disconnections."
— Judge's Note for the ALTA National Translation Award.

With its vertiginous propulsion and rotational structure, this single-long poem, a canto, hovers on the edge of the surreal, where meaning continually multiplies and then negates. The reader must engage her work as she instructs — intuitively.

Her inventive refraction of Italian literary tradition sought a more authentic liberation, “in all the nation’s life, in all the dismal / boroughs, in all the putridous world, exists / just one me, exists just one you, — exists charity.”

Now recognized as one of the most significant voices of post-war Europe, her visceral writing challenges the constriction of language as not only a fascist legacy but also as a critique of the banality and materialism of reconstruction.

Our bilingual edition includes an audio download of selections read in Italian and English by translator Deborah Woodard and actor Riccardo Pieri.


Audio

A downloadable file of this audio can be found on our audio page. Be sure to also check the recordings for Obtuse Diary.


Film

Here's a video by Brian Dang made for the Seattle performance of this book at Hugo House on June 9, 2023.


 


Reviews

2024 Year In Reading at Annulet (a tiny mention!)

Jeffery Kahrs reads The Dragonfly at Heavy Feather Review

Farewells in the Form of Burials: Deborah Woodard on Translating The Dragonfly

What Sparks Poetry: Deborah Woodard in Poetry Daily.

On Revisiting Amelia Rosselli's The Dragonfly in On the Seawall.

Mentions in the Italian Bookshelf «Annali d'Italianistica» 42 (2024)

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SKU: 62779599193

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JJ
San Leandro, US
★★★★★ 5
Winner of the aggressive chew competition
Color: No Stuffing Blue Eel
I bought several toys for an insane Jack Russell and this is the unlikely winner. It is a softer toy, but it is stitched together nicely and there are various components that distract the dog and keep him busy. First, it can be rolled up and stuck with small but strong Velcro patches, so it’s not just a sitting duck, the dog has to figure out how to unroll it which is fun. Next there are five little pockets on one side that you can put treats inside, which draw attention to the toy and give him another task. He did partially rip some of the flaps on the pockets in his zeal to get the treats. Then there is the squeaker, which he dispatched of in like 4 seconds (somehow without ripping the fabric(?)), then there are all sorts of crinkles and textures on both sides. All of this and the good stitching make it a toy he wants to play with but that he doesn’t annihilate in one day. The hard plastic toys are also good but I feel like I need to watch him carefully for fear that a sharp chunk will come off. The medium chew toys are cool but he’s just not into them. So this wins!
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Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2025
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Collette
Bozeman, US
★★★★★ 5
My dogs favorite toy!
Color: Blue & Yellow Eel Bundle
This is my Jack Chi and Yorkies favorite toys (it helps when they get 5 mini milk bones). It is a tough toy, but not impervious to a Jack Chi determination to remove all squeekiees! Squeekie or not, it's still their favorite toy for tug-a-war.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2026
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Doglady
Grantham, US
★★★★★ 4
Fun Toy
Color: No Stuffing Blue Eel, Color: No Stuffing Blue Eel
My dog loves this toy. It has 2 squeaky & also has crinkly sound along with the slots for treats. However it is not very durable. The treat slots were pretty much destroyed with the first use. I'm still giving it a 4 star because it is so fun & entertaining for my GSD.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2024
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DriftChick
Natrona Heights, US
★★★★★ 3
Kept puppy interested!... Till she chewed it apart in 5 minutes
Color: No Stuffing Blue Eel, Color: No Stuffing Blue Eel
I'll start off by saying this is a really unique toy. You really can hide treats in the pocket and the velcro is strong enough to roll it up that it won't come undone easily. The different textures and sounds interest my puppy! And she LOVES it! But it didn't last long with her. She LOVES rope toys and ripping them apart and eating it. I literally had just given it to her and not even a minute later (not joking), she had torn off a row of the rope-like part. 5 minutes later, the tail is already in shambles lol So long story short, great and interesting toy to keep the doggy from being bored. Maybe not so great for aggressive chewers/rippers in the long term. More than likely will be torn to shreds by the end of the day.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2025
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Aubrey D Frank
Port Orchard, US
★★★★★ 5
Great quality, fun design.
Color: No Stuffing Blue Eel
Wonderfully durable.. We have a 3 y/o australian kelpey and a 2 y/o pitty.. both are incredibly playful and tear up toys like nobody's business. A lot of the time under a day.. We're on day three with this eel, they love it and its holding firm (no tears or missing pieces). Squeakers are their favorite and these ones are perfect ( prominent but not too loud)
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Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2026

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