These renderings of Annamayya's poems to Lord Venkatesvara waste no words in the long-practiced invisibility of translators Velcheru Narayana Rao and David Shulman. With a practiced wit borne of long experience, a blunt honesty borne of deep conviction, Annamayya cuts quickly and so do the translators. The concision doesn't just invite, it forces the reader to participate in the magical play of word and intimacy. The unaided poems can be read for pure joy, while the apparatus is just enough to make second and third readings as rich and exciting as the first.