Editing Karel Hynek Mácha

{{Short description|Czech poet (1810–1836)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{expand Czech|date=March 2024|topic=bio}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Karel Hynek Mácha
| image            = Karel Hynek Mácha – Jan Vilímek – České album.jpg
| imagesize        = 
| caption          = Karel Hynek Mácha painted by [[Jan Vilímek]]
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=yes|1810|11|16}}
| birth_place      = [[Prague]], [[Bohemia]], [[Austrian Empire]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1836|11|5|1810|11|16}}
| death_place      = [[Litoměřice]], Bohemia, Austrian Empire
| resting_place    = [[Vyšehrad Cemetery]], Prague
| occupation       = Poet
| language         = [[Czech language|Czech]]
| nationality      = [[Czechs|Czech]]
| movement         = [[Czech national revival]]
| period           = 
| genre            = 
| subject          = 
| notableworks     = ''[[Máj]]''
| partner          = [[Eleonora Šomková]]
| children         = Ludvík Šomek
| relatives        = 
| awards           = 
| education        = [[Charles University in Prague|Prague University]]
}}
'''Karel Hynek Mácha''' ({{IPA|cs|ˈkarɛl ˈɦɪnɛk ˈmaːxa}}) (16 November 1810 – 5 November 1836) was a [[Czechs|Czech]] [[Romanticism|romantic]] poet. His poem ''[[Máj]]'' is among the most important poems in the history of [[Czech literature]].

== Biography ==
Mácha was born on 16 November 1810 in [[Prague]]. He grew up in Prague, the son of a foreman at a mill. He learned [[Latin]] and German in school. He went on to study law at [[Charles University in Prague|Prague University]]; during that time he also became involved in theatre (as an actor he first appeared in [[Jan Nepomuk Štěpánek|Jan Nepomuk Štěpánek's]] play ''Czech and German'' in July 1832 in [[Benešov]]<ref>Albert Pražák: Karel Hynek Mácha, Prague 1936, p. 21</ref>), where he met [[Eleonora Šomková]], with whom he had a son out of wedlock. He was fond of travel, enjoying trips into the mountains, and was an avid walker. Eventually he moved to [[Litoměřice]], a quiet town some 60&nbsp;km from Prague, to prepare for law school exams and to write poetry. Three days before he was to be married to Šomková, just a few weeks after he had begun working as a legal assistant, Mácha overexerted himself while helping to extinguish a fire and soon thereafter died. It is not certain what he died of. Some sources state that the cause of his death was pneumonia.<ref name="may" /> The official record lists Mácha's cause of death as ''Brechdurchfall'', a milder form of [[cholera]] characterized by retching and diarrhea.<ref>Úmrtní list. In Janský, Karel: Karel Hynek Mácha – Život uchvalitele krásy, Praha, 1953, p. 306</ref> The day after his death had been scheduled as his wedding day in Prague.

Mácha was buried in Litoměřice in a pauper's grave. Recognition came after his death: in 1939, his remains were exhumed, and they were given a formal state burial at the [[Vyšehrad Cemetery]] in Prague.<ref name="may"/>

==Honours and legacy==
A statue was erected in his honor in Petřín Park, Prague.<ref name="may"/> In 1937 a biographical film, ''Karel Hynek Mácha'', was made by [[Zet Molas]]. [[Lake Mácha]] ({{langx|cs|Máchovo jezero}}) was named after him in 1961.

Mácha was honored on a 50 haléř and a 1 koruna stamp on 30 April 1936, Scott Catalog #213–214. The stamp depicts a statue of Mácha that is found in Prague and was issued by the postal agency of Czechoslovakia. He was again honored on a 43 koruna postage stamp issued by the postal agency of the Czech Republic on 10 March 2010. This 43 koruna postage stamp is presented on a miniature souvenir sheet. The Scott catalog number for this postage stamp honoring Macha is Scott #3446.

Karel Mácha was appointed patron saint of the youth collective "De Barries" in 2019.

== Works ==
[[File:Original edition of "Máj", by Karel Hynek Mácha (1836).png|thumb|160px|Original edition of ''Máj'' (1836)]]
[[File:Karel Hynek Macha statue.jpeg|thumb|left|220px|Statue of Karel Hynek Mácha in Petřín Park, Prague]]
His lyrical epic poem ''[[Máj]]'' (''May''), published in 1836 shortly before his death, was judged by his contemporaries as confusing, too individualistic, and not in harmony with the national ideas.<ref name="may">Marcela Sulak, "Introduction," in {{Cite book|last = Mácha|first = Karel Hynek|others=Marcela Sulak (trans.)|title = May|publisher=Twisted Spoon Press|year = 2005|location = Prague|pages = 7–18|isbn = 80-86264-22-X}}</ref> Czech playwright [[Josef Kajetán Tyl]] even wrote a parody of Mácha's style, "Rozervanec" (The Chaotic). "Máj" was rejected by publishers, and was published by a vanity press at Mácha's own expense, not long before his early death. [[Josef Bohuslav Foerster]] set May for choir and orchestra as his Op.159.

Mácha's genius was discovered and glorified much later by the poets and novelists of the 1850s (e.g., [[Jan Neruda]], [[Vítězslav Hálek]], and [[Karolina Světlá]]) and "Máj" is now regarded as the classic work of Czech [[Romanticism]] and is considered one of the best Czech poems ever written.<ref>{{cite web |title=Karel Hynek Mácha |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karel-Hynek-Macha |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. |access-date=28 January 2020}}</ref> It contains forebodings of many of the tendencies of 20th-century literature: existentialism, alienation, isolation, surrealism, and so on.

Mácha also authored a collection of autobiographical sketches titled ''Pictures From My Life'', the 1835–36 novel ''[[Cikáni]]'' (Gypsies),<ref>Although the text of the novel ''Cikáni'' has been usually attributed to K.H. Mácha, there is a widespread hypothesis that its final shape was substantially influenced by his friend K. Sabina. See:
Zenkov A.V., Mistecky M. The Romantic Clash: Influence of Karel Sabina over Macha’s Cikani from the Perspective of the Numerals Usage Statistics, Glottometrics. 2019, Vol. 46, pp. 12–28.
https://www.ram-verlag.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/g46zeit.pdf</ref> and several individual poems, as well as a journal in which, among other things, he detailed his sexual encounters with Šomková.<ref name="may" /> The ''[[Travel to Italy (Mácha)|Diary of Travel to Italy]]'' describes his journey to [[Venice]], [[Trieste]], and [[Ljubljana]] (where he met the [[Slovenes|Slovene]] national poet [[France Prešeren]]) in 1834. The ''[[Diary of 1835 (Mácha)|Secret Diary]]'' describes his daily life in autumn 1835 with cipher passages concerning his relationship with Eleonora Šomková.<ref>Karel Hynek Mácha: Deníky. Zápisníky. Korespondence. Prague 1929</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Karel Hynek Mácha}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Karel Hynek Mácha}}
* [https://archive.today/20130105184846/http://archiv.radio.cz/hrbitov/macheng.html Mácha's untimely death]
* [http://www.brikcius.com/News.uk.022.html#Meet Meet ... Czech Poet Karel Hynek (Ignác) Mácha] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410162713/http://www.brikcius.com/News.uk.022.html#Meet |date=10 April 2021 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050819080310/http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/MachaJedl.html Karel Hynek Mácha: On Patriotism and Turtle-Doves]

{{Karel Hynek Mácha}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Macha, Karel Hynek}}
[[Category:Karel Hynek Mácha| ]]
[[Category:1810 births]]
[[Category:1836 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Prague]]
[[Category:People from the Kingdom of Bohemia]]
[[Category:Czech poets]]
[[Category:Czech male poets]]
[[Category:Romantic poets]]
[[Category:Poètes maudits]]
[[Category:19th-century Czech poets]]
[[Category:19th-century Czech male writers]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia]]
[[Category:Burials at Vyšehrad Cemetery]]