Shekkhopir-deshe Scroll: Poem

In his poem, Dukhushyam Chitrakar describes the condition of England in the 1590s, using details from previous discussions of this historical context and the maps, illustrations, and texts at his disposal. He adapts and incorporates into his own poem the contemporary Elizabethan poems on "Famine" and "Dearth" that were shared with him in Bengali translation. He praises Shakespeare's insight into the implications of food shortage, and affiliates the voice of Shakespeare (here called "Shekkhopir", a local Bengali name for the poet) to his own narrative voice as descended from a "pir", or philosopher-poet, empathetic to human suffering. The draft of the poem, in Dukhushyam's own hand, is pictured here. The final version appears in the Famine and Dearth database, accessible via the links.

Chitrakar, Dukhushyam

University of Exeter

2020-01

Dutta, Shrutakirti

Holding, Richard

Long, Lily

Mondal, Sujit

Mukherjee, Ayesha

Spence, Connor

Tupman, Charlotte

CC BY-NC

Handwritten by Dukhushyam Chitrakar, pen on paper

Bengali

Poem

England; 1595-98

Handwritten by Dukhushyam Chitrakar, pen on paper