Venus Envy
  Vol V : issue 1

  Cover page
  Kaushik Basu
  Radhika Coomaraswamy
  Taslima Nasreen
  N. S. Madhavan
  Zehra Nigah
  Only in Print

Zehra Nigah

Mixed media by SABA HASAN

I have heard
There is a law of the jungle

I have heard when the lion has eaten his fill
He never attacks
He goes to lie under dense shady trees
And when the rough gusts
Shake branches of trees
The mynah leaving her own young
Covers the frail crow’s eggs
With her protective wings

I have heard
When any bird-young falls out of the nest
The entire jungle wakes to rescue

I have heard
When the weaver bird’s nest
Reflects on the lake
The silvery fishes adopt it as neighbour
And if a rough storm breaks the foot-bridge
Then on a wooden plank
Squirrel, snake, goat and cheetah walk in a file

I have heard
There is a law of the jungle
O God, All Powerful, All Seeing, All Wise,
In this my city
Proclaim a law, even
The law of the jungle

Translated from the Urdu by Syeda Hameed

p. 1 • p. 2