New Delhi, May 28: “Years have passed since we met in one distant land, today I no longer remember you, where are you now, years have gone by… now I do not remember you…” These poignant lines are from the works of Prayag Shukla, a towering figure in Hindi literature, art critique, and linguistic bridge.
Born on May 28, 1940, in Kolkata, Prayag Shukla emerged from an enlightened and cosmopolitan environment. His poetry’s greatest strength lies in its stillness. During the 1960s, he contributed to Hindi poetry with works like “Kavita Sambhav” (1976), “Yeh Ek Din Hai” (1980), and “Yeh Jo Hara Hai” (1990), infusing a serene, composed, and dignified voice into the genre.
Art critics have described his poems as embodying the essence of “still life” in painting. Reading his poems, such as “Naukri,” “Samay Na Tha,” and “Barish,” feels like a beautiful scene coming to rest on paper.
Prayag Shukla is credited with establishing the critique of fine arts as a respected and serious discipline in Hindi journalism and discourse. At just 23, he entered the world of painting, believing that observing artworks is also a form of meditation.
His bi-weekly column “Sammakh” in the daily newspaper Jansatta became a vibrant document of the art world. Through translation, he brought the profound intellectual thoughts of Bengali literature to Hindi readers.
His most notable translation achievement is the essays of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. In “Bankimchandra: Pratinidhi Nibandh” (1995), he seamlessly translated Chattopadhyay’s theories on feminism, nationalism, and love into accessible Hindi, earning the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Translation Award in 1999.
Additionally, he translated Rabindranath Tagore’s timeless work “Gitanjali” directly from the original Bengali. He infused the fluidity of Hindi into the poems of two modern Bengali giants, Jibanananda Das and Sankha Ghosh. He also made the works of Mexican poet Octavio Paz and Philippine national writer Jose Rizal accessible to Indian readers.
As an editor, Prayag Shukla worked with luminaries like Agyeya and Raghuveer Sahay in the weekly “Dinman,” enriching publications like “Kalpana” and “Navbharat Times.” He was the founding editor of the renowned magazine “Rangprasang” from the National School of Drama (NSD) and “Sangana” from the Sangeet Natak Akademi, where he provided a new intellectual foundation for the critique of visual and performing arts.
Prayag Shukla has been honored with numerous accolades, including the Sahitya Akademi Translation Award (1999), the National Sharad Joshi Award from the Madhya Pradesh government (2002), the Dwijadev Award, and the Shreenarash Mehta Vangmay Smriti Award. Today, he stands like a serene banyan tree in the landscape of Indian art and literature.
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