A new translation of the classical Tamil masterpiece on ethics, power, and love.
Tiruvalluvar's Tirukkural is a Tamil masterpiece of poetry and practical philosophy. Each chapter consists of 10 short verses, or kurals, on a single theme, all arranged into 3 main sections: ethics at home, wealth in the world, and love in its many complexities. Comprising 1,330 kurals in total, Tiruvalluvar's text illuminates a vision of goodness that is as worldly as it is spiritual, as rooted as it is uplifting, and as broad as it is detailed and nuanced.
On par with other world classics such as the Tao Te Ching, The Kural has long been underserved by translators, who tend to sacrifice its poetry for what they see as its ideas. This new translation by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma draws on two decades of study under the Tamil scholar Dr. K. V. Ramakoti, as well as on the poetic tradition of W. S. Merwin, Wendell Berry, William Carlos Williams, and Denise Levertov, to do justice to the genius of the original and the subtlety of its understanding of life.
Accompanying the translation is a foreword by the founder of the Institute for Sacred Activism, Andrew Harvey, an introduction by the translator and scholar Archana Venkatesan, and a “commentary of notes” in which Pruiksma elucidates key words and shares insights from important commentaries. Rich with indelible wisdom and incandescent wordplay, Pruiksma's translation transforms the barrier of language into a bridge, bringing the fullness of Tiruvalluvar's poetic intensity to a new generation.
