For the Love of Cats: Poetry on Our Favourite Feline Friends

This week in Daak:

1. For the Love of Cats: Poetry on Our Favourite Feline Friends

2. Love the Rains?

3. Daak Recommends

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1. For the Love of Cats: Poetry on Our Favourite Feline Friends

Unlike a dog’s simple, unsolicited (and probably undeserved) affection, it is not always easy to read a cat’s emotional state. Perhaps it is this mystery that has continued to fascinate us since felines were domesticated almost ten to twelve thousand years ago. This long-standing companionship has been instructive, even to the best amongst us, including poets and philosophers. In the subcontinent too, cats, with their deep, elusive natures, have inspired poetry and existential rumination.

In her poem, “Advice to Women”, the fierce and fearless Eunice de Souza reminded us that the “otherness” of cats is not neglect, but a lesson in solitude and self-sufficiency. And in this solitude, even the worst fate imaginable — dying alone — can be an exercise in dignified closures.

Advice to Women by Eunice de Souza

Keep cats
if you want to learn to cope with
the otherness of lovers.
Otherness is not always neglect -
Cats return to their litter trays
when they need to.
Don't cuss out of the window
at their enemies.
That stare of perpetual surprise
in those great green eyes
will teach you
to die alone.

Jibanananda Das, the Bengali poet who was known to romance nature, also extended his scrutiny to the comings and goings of the cats in his orbit. Less somber than de Souza, the cats in Das’ poems are playful and engrossed in secret pursuits, of which we only catch small glimpses. All we know is that they appear and disappear, guided by a strange, unknown rhythm.

The Cat by Jibanananda Das

All day I inevitably encounter a cat here and there
In the shadow of trees or out in the sun, around
the pile of fallen leaves;
I catch sight of him, deeply engrossed like a bee,
with his own self
Embedded in the skeleton of white soil
Having successfully spotted some bones
of fishes somewhere;
But still, nevertheless, he scratches at the trunk
of the Krishnachura tree
All day he moves about stalking the sun.

Now he shows up here
The next moment he is lost somewhere.
I spot him in the autumn dusk playing around
As if, with his white paws, he is patting the supple body
of the saffron sun;
Then he nets up the tiny balls of darkness with his paw
And spreads them throughout the world.

(Translation by Faizul Latif Chowdhury)

This idiosyncrasy of cats both charmed and infuriated Nissim Ezekiel. In his sardonic ode “My Cat”, Ezekiel expresses his frustration at his cat’s indifference to his wishes and desires. Often bored, she hilariously refuses to play or entertain — a biting commentary on the importance we attach to our own needs. Ezekiel’s cat is a lesson in true humility and unconditional love; we love who we love, even when we cannot make them bend to our will.

My Cat by Nissim Ezekiel

My cat, unlike Verlaine's or Baudelaire's
Is neither diabolic nor a sphinx.
Though equally at home on laps or chairs,
She will not be caressed, nor plays the minx.

She has a single mood, she's merely bored,
Yawns and walks away, retires to sleep.
Has never sniffed at where the fish is stored.
Nor known to relish milk; less cat than sheep.

She does not condescend to chase a rat
Or play with balls of wool or show her claws
To teasing guests, but in my basement flat
Defies all animal and human laws
Of love and hate.
One night I'll drown this cat.

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2. Love the Rains?

If you love the pitter patter of raindrops (and its adorable linguistic counterpart), these hand-painted wooden earrings are for you!

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3. Daak Recommends

Supplement today’s Daak by reading this article on Mir Taqi Mir and Ghalib’s love for their cats, including the lyrical odes they composed in their honour.