Tiger, Tiger!
By Prof. Ashok Tiwari

Tiger, tiger, burning bright!
Dreadful is your present plight!

God’s mighty act of your creation
Filled Blake’s mind with fascination!
You are our national animal,
No other creature is you equal.
In deep forests you’re no longer found.
Your roars there no longer resound.
You are Goddess Durga’s mount,
All this does no longer count.

Tiger, tiger, burning bright!
Dreadful is your present plight!

Now your body is your enemy!
It is seen in terms of money.
Alive, some admirers you may please,
Dead, you’re worth lakhs of rupees!
The money is such a temptation,
In hunting you where’s hesitation?
Hunting you is no great art,
A steel trap, a bullet through the heart!
Your skin ladies wear for vanity—
An act devoid of all sanity!
It adorns a tycoon’s drawing room wall
Or the floor of some palace hall.

In China your genitals, ground to powder,
Restore old men’s sexual drive and power.
Your bones are used in medicines.
Your flesh and fat cure rheumatism.
Your skull is transformed into a trophy,
Your teeth hang in charms and jewellery.

Tiger, tiger, bright as flame!
Your extinction would be our shame!
In jungles may you thrive again!
May this wish not be in vain!
Lord of beasts, long be your reign.
Your blood jungle trails never stain.
May greedy plans of poachers fail.
May they spend their lives in jail.
May posterity still get to see
Your beauty, power and majesty.

Tiger, tiger, bright as flame!
Your extinction would be our shame!