Toward the end of March 1923, Negri enjoyed a brief holiday in Sicily and from there she went to the island of Capri, where she stayed for about a year and wrote I Canti dell'Isola/Songs of the Island. Her lyrics of Capri, full of sun, blueness and the perfume of oriental roses, are like a seashell: magical, polyphonic in their infinite melodiousness. Dedicated to the memory of Cesare Sarfatti, husband of Negri's best friend and fellow-writer Margherita Sarfatti, and that of their war-hero son Roberto Sarfatti, I Canti's poems represent a sort of parenthesis in Negri's work. They are the result of the blinding light of the island, the ardor of a holiday both physical and spiritual. In the words of one critic, they embody "the magic of the tangible and the flashes of invisible reality," and symbolize the poet's hour of quiet and reflection on her path thus far. Via the impressionistic sweep of these images, the poet transports us with Capri's explosion of light and color. Enchanted by pearls, amethyst and jade, the mythological sea of Ulysses, the unstoppable bleeding of poppies, climbing purple roses, and the castaways of dreams, the reader wants to be seduced, if only for a moment, by this world of the senses. Yet, as if fraught with guilt, through the poet the human spirit aspires to a higher self. Translated by Maria A Costantini. First English translation. Dual-language edition. Introduction, bibliography, map, glossary.

Ada Negri, the author of ten volumes of poetry who enjoyed an international reputation for her frank and passionate writing, had a tormented love affair with a man whose life was cut short by premature death. She translated this experience into "The Book of Mara," in essence one long poem arising from a woman's most intimate place as if in a visceral scream - a most passionate expression of love, loss and redemption. Written with unusual frankness, especially in view of Italian society of the time, "The Book of Mara," along with "Songs of the Island," is considered the high point of Negri's poetic work.Through metrical and formal execution, "The Book of Mara" demonstrates the originality of her verse, which opens up to a more personal dimension - almost prose-like. Her verse is impressionistic, almost mystical, spanned with bristling lyrics, sudden igniting bursts and visionary flashes.Negri's poetry was made by going deep inside herself, into the travail of her childhood, into the solitude and the sleeplessness around an uncertain future, into the wounds of sorrow and the misfortune that befalls each one of us. Her poems express an ardent though fruitless hope, in wait of a great love; made light by those rare moments of abandon and happiness.First English translation, by Maria A Costantini.Dual-language edition.Introduction, bibliography.118 pages.

Ada Negri, the author of ten volumes of poetry who enjoyed an international reputation for her frank and passionate writing, had a tormented love affair with a man whose life was cut short by premature death. She translated this experience into "The Book of Mara," in essence one long poem arising from a woman's most intimate place as if in a visceral scream - a most passionate expression of love, loss and redemption. Written with unusual frankness, especially in view of Italian society of the time, "The Book of Mara," along with "Songs of the Island," is considered the high point of Negri's poetic work. Through metrical and formal execution, "The Book of Mara" demonstrates the originality of her verse, which opens up to a more personal dimension - almost prose-like. Her verse is impressionistic, almost mystical, spanned with bristling lyrics, sudden igniting bursts and visionary flashes. Negri's poetry was made by going deep inside herself, into the travail of her childhood, into the solitude and the sleeplessness around an uncertain future, into the wounds of sorrow and the misfortune that befalls each one of us. Her poems express an ardent though fruitless hope, in wait of a great love; made light by those rare moments of abandon and happiness. First English translation, by Maria A Costantini. Dual-language edition. Introduction, bibliography. 118 pages.