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 Namm v r (c. ninth century CE), the greatest of the v r poet-saints of the Tamil r vai ava tradition. Its hundred interlinked verses celebrate the love between an anonymous heroine and hero, who come to be identified with Namm v r and his beloved deity, Vi u. 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 Vi u 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.