Karel Hynek Mácha: Czech poet of lovers

Radio Prague on Karel Hynek Mácha



The Czech National Poet, May 1st, 1987
(For Hugh Hamilton McGoverne, translator of 'Máj' and instigator of readings in both Czech and English at the statue of Mácha in Prague, 1946-1949)



By the statue of Mácha

Czech lovers were standing,

Sharing in silence soft moments of twilight,

Late in the evening, the first day of May.

Young couples, old couples,

Offering flowers and laying their love-wreaths,

Dandelion necklaces, daisy-chain rings,

Adorning their poet on Prague's Petřín Hill.

The blossoming trees wooed all the lovers,

The fragrant flowers breathed moist sweetness at dusk.

Like an altar of love, the disciples adoring,

Applauding their poet for the language he used:

"Kvĕtoucí strom lhal lásky žel".


JP


On Czech Literary Treasures in London

Susan Reynolds at the British Library