MAJ
Karel Hynek Mácha, engraving by Jan Vilímek
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| Author | Karel Hynek Mácha |
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| Country | Czech Republic |
| Language | Czech |
| Genre | narrative poem |
| Publisher | self-published |
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Publication date
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1836 |
| Media type | |
Máj (archaic Czech for the month May; pronounced [maːj]) is a romantic poem by Karel Hynek Mácha in four cantos. It was fiercely criticized when first published, but since then has gained the status of one of the most prominent works of Czech literature; in Czech, the poem now is memorized by schoolchildren and continuously in print.
According to the author's epilogue, the poem is a homage to the beauty of spring. It is set in a bucolic landscape, inspired by such features as a lake then called Big Pond (Czech: Velký rybník), and now called Lake Mácha (Czech: Máchovo jezero), after the poet. The poem's action takes place near the town of Hiršberg. Castles such as Bezděz, Karlštejn, and Křivoklát (Mácha was an avid walker and knew Central Bohemia intimately) also influence the setting of the poem.
As a dramatic poem (in the byronic sense), the poem has a cast of characters: Vilém, a bandit, in love with Jarmila; Jarmila, a girl in love with Vilém but dishonoured by Vilém's father; and Hynek, the narrator.
A young girl, Jarmila, has been seduced by a man who is killed by his own son, Vilém; the latter is a robber known as the "terrible forest lord." On the evening of 1 May, sitting on a hill by a lake, she awaits his coming, but is instead told by a one of Vilém's associates that her lover sits across the lake in a castle, to be executed for the murder. While he waits, he ponders on the beauty of nature and his young life. The next day, he is led to a hill where he is decapitated; his mangled limbs are displayed in a wheel fastened to a pillar, and his head is placed on top of the pillar. Seven years later, on 31 December, a traveler named Hynek, comes across Vilém's pallid skull and the next day is told the story by an innkeeper. Years later, on the evening of 1 May, he returns and compares his own life that the month of May.
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