Book Discussion: Love Longing Loss with Rekhta Founder Sanjiv Saraf

​A journey of LOVE through the lens of Urdu poetry based on over 1200 of the best couplets of great poets. The flowing narrative and rhymed transcreations in English by Sanjiv Saraf, founder of Rekhta Foundation, brings alive Urdu love poetry for non-Urdu readers.

​The exquisite journey of love passes through numerous twists and turns, bringing different experiences to each individual. In Urdu poetry, poets have penned down these diverse experiences in rhyme with a sheer eloquence that aptly expresses the exceptional bond between the lover and the beloved. Meer, Ghalib, Momin, Dagh, Faiz and hundreds of Urdu poets have voices to the emotions of lovers going through stages such as longing, interplay, loving, possessiveness, rivalry, separation, breaking-up and frenzy.

​This eloquence makes every reader share this thought, as was inimitably expressed by Mirza Ghalib: Dekhna taqreer ki lazzat ki jo us ne kahaa Maine ye jaanaa ki goyaa ye bhi mere dil men hai ‘Love Longing Loss in Urdu Poetry’ offers a lyrical English transcreation of these experiences woven in the web of an enchanting tale that includes the subtle nuances and the beauty of Urdu poetry with all its beauty.