There was a world and a time when Urdu poetry and philosophy were recited and composed on the streets of Delhi.

The Sun That Rose From The Earth, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, Penguin Books India, Rs 799. Available at leading bookstores.

Master of poetry and an eminent critic, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi (author of The Mirror of Beauty) recreates such scenarios through a collection of stories, titled The Sun That Rose From The Earth.

The septuagenarian’s own translation from the original Urdu text Savaar aur Doosre Afsaane, contains stories that are dotted with Modernist concerns where characters are unable to resist falling in love with a prostitute, such as in the story The Rider, where the protagonist is arrested by an indeterminacy when it comes to marriage.

The book is equally delightful, as we found, when you have a string of poets ranging from Ghalib, Mirza Jan-e Janan, Mir, Amir Khan, Anjam and others re-imagined transporting one to the elegance of the historical era.