In the early morning hours of 4 June 2020 the Romani activist, journalist, poet and translator Jan Döme Horváth passed away after a brief illness at the age of 60. His family communicated the news to news server Romea.cz.

As an orator on different occasions of celebration and remembrance, during which he always recited his poetry for both Czech and Romani audiences in Romanes, he persistently defended and promoted the existence of the Romanes language in the public space. In an interview in 2012 he said: “A book written in Romanes will probably not sell very well… This is not about sales, but about convincing Czechs and Romani people as well that we have our own language, our own wishes and desires, and that we know how to do what others can do. In addition, it is only when one speaks Romanes that one opens up and expresses all the ideas and feelings one wants to share. Our traditions, music, lačho lav, Romipen, are repeated in my poems as well and must never disappear. Look, Romanes-language books and newspapers have been published in this country for just 20 years, but Romanes has been alive here for a thousand years without them, and doubtless will live another thousand years. It cannot be erased. It is the language in which we sing and in which an English Rom communicates on the Internet with a Czech Rom, and Indian Rom, an American Rom or an Romanian Rom. How else should we speak with each other? Romanes is nekhguleder pro svetos – the sweetest language in the world.”

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