Karel Hynek Macha – Poet of Love

Date of Issue 10 March 2010

Hi ! In today’s Post a beautiful Souvenir Sheet, issued by Czech Republic to commemorate 200 years of birth of Great Romantic Poet of all times Karel Hynek Mácha who died at a very young age of 25 years. When I searched details about this great poet it made me very sad to know that he died at such an early age. But at that age what he wrote is still remembered all over the world….His poem May is the masterpiece and very touching…..This post is a philatelic tribute to the great Poet who left a milestone in the field of literature. This is all for Today…….Till Next Post ….Have a Great Time !

Karel Hynek Mácha (1810 - 1836) was a great Czech Romantic poet and author of the epic poem Máj (May). Karel Hynek Macha was born in Prague in 1810, studied law and worked as a trainee in a law office.The poem, written in a remarkably beautiful style, tells about the tragic love of two young people and has become a poetic masterpiece of the Czech Romantic period and Czech literature in general.Among his best known works include the poem Maj.

A Souvenir sheet is issued By Czech Post to commemorate the 200 years anniversary of the birth of romantic poet Karel Hynek Macha. This souvenir sheet illustrates Macha behind a rock and luminous full moon.

Mácha 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 Prague University; during that time he also became involved in theater, where he met Eleonora Somkova, 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 km from Prague, to prepare for law school exams and to write poetry. Three days before he was to be married to Somkova, just a few weeks after he had begun working as a legal assistant, Mácha, in helping put out a fire, overstrained himself, and died after a short period of illness, due to pneumonia. The day after his death he was expected in Prague to marry his mistress.

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. A statue was erected in his honor in Petřín Park, Prague. In 1937 a biographic film, Karel Hynek Mácha, was made by Zet Molas (a pen name of Zdena Smolová). Máchovo jezero (English Mácha's Lake) was named after him in 1961.

On May 1st, couples gather at the statue of Karel Hynek Mácha, the Czech Romantic "poet of love", in Prague's Petřín Park where they lay flowers and spend a few moments. The park is a particularly romantic place in May when its cherry trees are in bloom. Since May 1st is a national holiday in the Czech Republic, lots of people come to Petřín for a stroll if the weather is nice.

Karel Hynek Mácha: Máj (May)

May First, the Time of Love

Late evening, on the first of May -
The twilit May - the time of love.
Meltingly called the turtle-dove,
Where rich and sweet pinewoods lay.
Whispered of love the mosses trail,
The flowering tree as sweetly lied,
The rose's fragrant sigh replied
To love-songs of the nightingale.
In shadowy woods the burnished lake
Darkly complained a secret pain,
By circling shores embraced again;
And heaven's clear sun leaned down to take
A road astray in azure deeps,
Like burning tears the lover weeps.

His lyrical epic poem Máj (May), published in 1836 shortly before his death.Mácha's genius was discovered and glorified much later by the poets and novelists of the 1850s generation and Máj is now regarded as the classic work of Czech Romanticism, and is considered one of the best Czech poems ever written. He also authored a collection of autobiographical sketches titled Pictures From My Life, the 1835–36 novel Gypsies, as well as several individual poems.

Read full poems http://www.lupomesky.cz/maj/may.html

Club News

3-D Dinosaurs stamps Souvenir Sheet with the special viewer. These stamps were issued by South Africa on 2 November 2009.

Courtesy – Sundar L. Bansal, New Delhi

Views & Comments

Suraj Jaitly, Editor - ITS Stamp News

Thanks a lot for re-printing my “Editorial”, which was published on 3.3.2010 in quarterly magazine “ITS Stamp News”, January-March 2010 issue no.49 of Indian Thematic Society. But now the website of Indepex-2011 has been launched, without any information to leading magazines and press. But I am sorry to point out it provides very limited information yet. Design and layout of the same is also not attractive & appealing at first sight. First Bulletin of the same World Philatelic Exhibition is also still awaited.