Elsa Kazi

Elsa Kazi
Elsa Kazi in later years
Born	Gertrude Loesch (1884-10-03)3 October 1884 Rudel Stadt, Germany
Died	3 October 1967 (aged 82–83)
Spouse(s)	Allama I.I. Qazi (m. 1910; wid. 1967)

Elsa Kazi (1884–1967), commonly known as "Mother EIsa", particularly in the Sindh province of Pakistan was a German writer of one-act plays, short stories, novels and history, and a poet. She was also a composer and a musician of considerable achievement, involved in virtually every conspicuous branch of fine arts. Her paintings are often seen in many distinguished family homes.

Although not well conversant with the Sindhi language, she yet managed to come with some of the best translations of selected verses of Shah Abdul Latif into English with the support of her husband, Allama I. I. Kazi. She successfully couched the substance of those verses in a poetical setting which, in musical terms, reflects the original Sindhi metrical structure and expression in which Latif had cast them. Her translation of Shah Abdul Latif's poetry is considered by many to be the best so far in the English language. Her works have been the subject of several doctoral theses. She is also famous for her stories for children. Furthermore, the University of Washington Libraries has rated one of her works "Temptation: a drama of Sind country life in three acts" published in 1942 and "Aeolian: notes of an overstrung lyre" published in 1920 amongst the best South Asian literature that emerged prior to the Partition of India in 1947.

Born Gertrude Loesch in Rudel Stadt, a small village in Germany, in the house of a musician who ultimately migrated to London, she assumed the name of Elsa after marriage. Her father the late Mr Elderman was a prosperous German having property in London that was destroyed during World War II. After the war, compensation was paid to her for the same.