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May by [Karel Hynek Mácha, Jindrich Styrsky, Marcela Sulak]

May Kindle Edition

by Karel Hynek Mácha (Author), Jindrich Styrsky (Illustrator), Marcela Sulak (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition

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Often compared to Byron, Keats, Shelley, and Poe, called Lautreamont's "elder brother" by the Czech Surrealists, Karel Hynek Mácha (1810-36) was the greatest Czech Romantic poet, and arguably the most influential of any poet in the language. May, his epic masterpiece, was published in April 1836, just seven months before his death. Considered the "pearl" of Czech poetry, it is a tale of seduction, revenge, and patricide. A paean as well to nature, the beauty of its music and its innovative use of language, expertly captured in this new translation by Marcela Sulak, has ensured the poem's lasting popularity. Scorned at first by the national revivalists of the 19th century for being "un-Czech," Mácha was held up as a "national" poet by later generations, a fate which the interwar Czech avant-garde, who considered him a precursor, took it upon themselves to reverse.

Unlike the other seminal 19th-century European poets, Mácha's work has been largely ignored in English translation. This edition includes a series of illustrations by Jindřich Štyrský specifically created for the poem.

Print length

121 pages
Language

English
Publication date

7 July 2014
File size

3514 KB
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Enhanced typesetting

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Product description

Review

Many works of art and literature are beloved because they are linked inextricably to the culture and age from which they sprang. [...] Macha's "May" seems to fit both categories: Stylistically, it has no real precedent in Czech literature, and yet over the past two centuries it has taken a central place in the hearts and minds of [Czechs] as the crowning achievement of Czech Romanticism. That fact is reason enough to read the poem. Marcela Sulak's skillful, sensitive translation of Macha's groundbreaking language is another. --The Prague Post

Marcela Sulak has beautifully maintained the same style of poetic language as Macha, with the use of the dash to represent silence and time lapse. Sulak's Introduction is also informative for the non-reader of Czech and fairly explains the difficulties in maintaining a true English parallel to the original. -- Slavic and East European Journal

To my mind the most modern Czech poem is K.H. Macha's May. -- Jindrich Styrsky --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

About the Author

Karel Hynek Macha was born on November 16, 1810 in an old part of Prague where his father was the foreman at one of the city's mills. At school he learned Latin and German, the two languages approved by the Hapsburg authorities, and later studied law at Prague University. His great model was Byron, with whom he shared a romantic idealism, wandering the Bohemian countryside to visit castle ruins, always making sketches and notes describing the natural beauty surrounding him. Influenced by the Czech intellectuals who were trying to revive the language at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Macha wrote May and many of his poems in Czech (though his early writing was in German, the compulsory language of his education). In this way he identified himself with the Byronic hero who gives his life to a cause. Macha died of pneumonia on November 5, 1836 just shy of his 26th birthday. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00LMHUAAU
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Twisted Spoon Press (7 July 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3514 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 121 pages

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Siobhan Dunlop

Atmospheric Romantic poem in great edition

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 August 2018

Verified Purchase

It is fantastic to be able to get May / Maj in an English translation, and to have the Czech original on the facing page adds to the ability to think about it in translation if if you know no or barely a word of Czech. The introduction is useful for situating the poem in its history and within both Czech literature and Romanticism, which feels particularly vital as you can feel how much Mácha was influenced by Byron whilst reading. The poem itself is dark and intriguing, engaging fully with the ideals of nature and the self that the Romantics were so interested in. The constant repetition is gotten across in the translation and adds to the sense of the original style that is discussed in the introduction.

I hope for more great editions of Czech literature in translation.