With Love Longing Loss, Rekhta founder Sanjiv Saraf attempts to make Urdu couplets and ghazals accessible

On one sunny afternoon of February 2017, when there was still a slight chill left in the air from the preceding winter months, I stood facing a grand stage at IGNCA in New Delhi and even though some of the chairs in front were empty, the nervous excitement of being on one of my first culture assignments did not let me sit down for long. As a young reporter, and a self-proclaimed romantic, it was natural of me to attend Jashn-e-Rekhta because Urdu was that language everyone turns to in the matters of love, and also because a faint memory of Naseeruddin Shah portraying Mirza Ghalib on Doordarshan was still warm in my heart.   I did not understand most of the shers and ghazals, however, recognising some of those couplets would make me join the collective “waah” [bravo] from the crowds. I would nod my head in appreciation as the words resonated with me.

Rekhta founder Sanjiv Saraf’s Love Longing Loss rides on a similar thought – to connect with young readers who may not fully understand Urdu but appreciate its beauty to touch those deep dark corners of the heart that are left bruised and tender by some or the other incident in life.

Reading the couplets, first in Urdu written in English script, and then its rhyming transcreation in English, would make me part my lips sometimes in a painful sigh, and at others, a playful waah. I would read and re-read a couplet that touched me especially, connected with me in a way only a long lost friend is capable of doing. Here is one for perspective: vasl meñ ḳhālī huī ġhair se mahfil to kyā sharm bhī jaa.e to maiñ jānūñ ki tanhā.ī huī [Amīr Mīnā.ī] What matters if the chamber / was emptied of my foe When her shyness too departs, will solitude I know Talking about his latest work, Saraf told Firstpost the aim was to make it into a “readable and interesting narrative." “While there are many books containing shers by various topics, including love [the dominant  subject of Urdu poetry], none had woven the shers into a readable and interesting narrative. The criteria were that shers should fit well in the narrative, and should evoke either a “waah”  or an “aah” from the reader,” Saraf told Firstpost in an email interaction. Saraf has collected and presented the shers in a way that sets the narrative of the book in the themes generally associated with love – starting from falling in love to coming face to face with the beloved, from feeling lovesick to reaching levels of frenzy for the lover.   For example, shayar Mirza Ghalib, in this instance, hopes for loyalty from his lover even as he knows there is hope for it.   “Ham ko un se vafā kī hai ummīd jo nahīñ jānte vafā kyā hai From her, I harbour hopes of constancy Who does not even know what’s loyalty   With the collection of nearly 1,300 “either oft-quoted or quotable” shers from some of the greatest Urdu masters this country has birthed, the book can be considered a comprehensive study of love through Urdu poetry. The book takes from nearly 300 poets of varying repute to cover the themes of alienation, neglect, interplay, tryst, possessiveness, separation, death wish, and more. If it presents an easy gateway to an amateur reader of Urdu poetry into understanding some of the choicest couplets from the likes of Ghalib, Meer, and Dagh, it also leads the way to some rare poets to a serious reader. Saraf, who worked on the book for almost two years, said that the shers were collected as and when they resonated with him, with more inclination towards classical Urdu poetry. “It is impossible to include every poet or every good sher in any book. Over the years, I read thousands of shers, and as quite a few of these resonated with me, I collected them. When I looked back at these shers recently, I felt it would be a shame if they were not compiled, published, and shared,” he said. The book is one of its kind for presenting transcreation of shers in rhymes, making the poetry more readable and easily understandable to an English reader. Saraf has not tried to translate the shers but transcreate them, a practice among translators that allows one to adapt a text from one language to another while maintaining its intent, style, tone, and context. Unlike in English, Urdu poetry can be more flexible in its meaning, and can also provide the facility of lengthening or shortening words based on poetic necessity. Owing to having flexible grammatical rules, the language offers more freedom and flexibility to its writer. However, Saraf said, the task becomes equally challenging for somebody who seeks to transcreate the text into English.   “Any transcreation of Urdu shers is a challenging enterprise. Rhymed transcreation more so,” he said.    While transcreating, Saraf added one has to consider various things at the same time, including understanding the sher, trying to get to the closest meaning in just two lines, and making sure that the meter and rhyme are in order. “Working knowledge of English along with an ear for rhyme was of immense use. Of course, the internet with its dictionaries. In the attempt to capture both the meaning and form of the sher, I had to walk the razor line between being faithful to the text and transcreating it,” he said.   Saraf has earlier transcreated ghazals of 10 Delhi masters in Nava-e-Sarosh. There are two more books on selected ghazals that will come out soon – Golden Verses Golden Voices -101 Popular Ghazals, and Andaaz-e-Bayaañ Aur – Ghalib’s 100 selected Ghazals. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.