Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma

author, poet, teacher, and performer

The New York Review of Books on The Kural

I’m humbled and delighted and honored by David Shulman’s recent review of THE KURAL in the New York Review of Books, “Cosmic Oceans Squeezed into Atoms.”

Along with Archana Venkatesan’s wonderful introduction, Shulman’s essay does a beautiful job of introducing the Kural to an English-speaking audience and of showing what makes it the extraordinary work that it is.

As Shulman writes, “The idiosyncratic wisdom of the Tirukkural’s poetry is about aliveness, perhaps the most elusive of human goals.”

You can read the entire review on the New York Review of Books website by creating a free account.

To translate even a single kural couplet, bewitching in its rhythm and packed with meaning, is a formidable task. But we now have Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma’s translation, without doubt the best ever into English. David Shulman, New York Review of Books

You can also read or download a PDF of the review below.

Cosmic Oceans Squeezed into Atoms – David Shulman – NYRBDownload