Love, Longing and Loss: A Poetic Journey into Urdu Through Sanjiv Saraf’s Transcreated Masterpiece
Team L&M
In a remarkable literary endeavour, Sanjiv Saraf brings the timeless beauty of Urdu poetry to a wider audience with Love Longing Loss in Urdu Poetry. Built on over 1,200 carefully curated couplets by legendary poets, the book offers a lyrical English trans-creation that makes Urdu sha’iri accessible to non-Urdu readers without losing its emotional depth.
Saraf, founder of the Rekhta Foundation, crafts an immersive narrative where love unfolds through verses of longing, separation, and passion. The book is not just a translation—it is a poetic journey that captures the essence, rhythm, and soul of Urdu poetry in a way that resonates across languages.
Bridging Language and Emotion
“Urdu poetry has an infectious appeal,” says Saraf, highlighting how non-Urdu readers are often drawn to its charm but struggle to grasp its deeper meaning due to linguistic barriers. To bridge this gap, he chose rhymed English trans-creations instead of literal prose translations.
This approach preserves the musicality and emotional impact of the original she’rs, making the experience both engaging and aesthetically pleasing for modern readers.
A Pandemic-Era Creation
The conceptualisation of Love Longing Loss in Urdu Poetry began just before the Covid19 pandemic and took shape during the first wave in 2020. Stranded in the United States for nearly six months, Saraf found the unexpected pause to be creatively transformative.
“This book is truly a child of the Covid-19 era,” he shares. The manuscript took nearly 18 months to complete, followed by another six months of refining, restructuring, and publishing. After dedicating three decades to business, Saraf has now shifted his focus to his passion for Urdu literature.
A First-of-Its-Kind Narrative
Unlike traditional translation collections, this book weaves together individual couplets into a cohesive storytelling format. Saraf believes this narrative approach is unique, offering readers a seamless journey through the many shades of love.
“This is a collection of some of the most evocative she’rs on love,” he explains. “They are connected through a storyline, allowing readers to experience poetry as an evolving emotional landscape rather than isolated verses.”
Curating the Essence of Ishq
An avid lover of Urdu poetry, Saraf has read and collected thousands of she’rs over the years. For this book, he selected those that not only resonated deeply with him but also fit organically into the narrative.
“The idea was simple,” he says. “Each she’r should evoke either a vaah (admiration) or an aah (emotion) from the reader.”
The central theme of love—its highs, lows, agony, and ecstasy—was a natural choice given its universal appeal and abundance in Urdu poetry. Through this collection, Saraf invites readers on a guided journey through the “forest of love,” exploring its many moods and meanings.
Expanding the Literary Universe
While the book features over 1,200 couplets, Saraf acknowledges that he has left many unexplored and may include them in future editions. He also hints at upcoming projects, including Hazaar Daastaan-e-Ishq, which will present the narrative essence in Hindi and Urdu.
His previous work, Nava-e-Sarosh, and forthcoming titles such as Golden Verses Golden Voices and Andaaz-e-Bayaañ Aur further establish his commitment to preserving and popularising Urdu poetry.
Blending storytelling with lyrical expression, Love Longing Loss in Urdu Poetry stands as a significant contribution to contemporary Indian literature—one that makes the mystical, emotional world of Urdu poetry accessible to a global audience while retaining its timeless soul.
