[A Hundred Measures of Time 01] • A Hundred Measures of Time

‘Look, my feet measure beyond earth and sky!’ he said

and touched the sky.

I have surrendered to my lord

who glanced at me with his large radiant eyes.

The Tiruviruttam is an iconic poem by Nammāḻvār (c. ninth century CE), the greatest of the āḻvār poet-saints of the Tamil Śrīvaiṣṇava tradition. Its hundred interlinked verses celebrate the love between an anonymous heroine and hero, who come to be identified with Nammāḻvār and his beloved deity, Viṣṇu. The poet masterfully weaves the erotic and esoteric to reveal both the contours of love and the never-ending cycles of separation and union, of birth and death, from which only Viṣṇu can offer release.

In A Hundred Measures of Time, Archana Venkatesan has crafted a sonorous free-verse rendering and an accompanying far-ranging essay to delight poetry lovers and scholars alike.