Obrazy hvězd a jisker v Máji: antropologické a ontologické výpovědi

• Authors: Martin Z. Pokorný

Title variants

EN

Images of stars and sparks in May: anthropological and ontological testimonies

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

The article explores the role played by the motif of stars and sparks in the first to third songs of Macha’s poem May. Stars appear in the first canto, both in reference to stars whose light is going out and in the form of sparks (the reflection of starlight) playing on the waves of the lake. In the second canto, the extinct (dead) star that is falling forever through dark space connotes human life exposed to nothingness. If the sparks on the lake are characterised as ‘lost light’, then, it is said, man is unable to determine which spark is a reflection of which star, and is thereby also unable to reveal the source of the light and of earthly beauty. Humans are thus unable to discern whether earthly beauty and earthly life really have any supernatural (transcendent) source.

Keywords

CS

Karel Hynek Mácha; hvězdy; jiskry; světelná metaforika; existenciální otázky; soucit přírody; nezaloženost pozemské existence; nicota; nihilismus

EN

Karel Hynek Mácha; stars; sparks; metaphors of light; existential questions; sympathy of nature; groundlessness of earthly existence; nothingness; nihilism

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Institute of Czech Literature, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Česká literatura (Czech Literature)
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 69
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 709-738
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Martin Z. Pokorný

• Česká literatura, redakce, Ústav pro českou literaturu AV ČR, v. v. i., Na Florenci 3/1420, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic