Go to my country, go, foreign
flowers,
Planted by the traveler on his way,
And there beneath that sky of blue
That over my beloved towers,
Speak for this traveler to say
What faith in his homeland he
breathes to you.
Go and say – say that when the
dawn
First drew your calyx open there
Beside the River Neckar chill,
You saw him standing by you, very
still,
Reflecting on the primrose flush
you wear.
Say that when the morning light
Her toll of perfume from you
wrung,
While playfully she whispered,
"How I love you!"
He too murmured here above you
Tender love songs in his native
tongue.
That when the rising sun the height
Of Königsstuhl in early morn first
spies,
And with its tepid light
Is pouring life in valley, wood, and
grove,
He greets the sun as it begins to
rise,
Which in his native land is blazing
straight above.
And tell them of that day he staid
And plucked you from the border of
the path,
Amid the ruins of the feudal castle,
By the River Neckar, and in the
silvan shade.
Tell them what he told you
As tenderly he took
Your pliant leaves and pressed
them in a book,
Where now its well worn pages
close enfold you.
Carry, carry, flowers of Rhine,
Love to every love of mine,
Peace to my country and her fertile
loam,
Virtue to her women, courage to
her men,
Salute those darling ones again,
Who formed the sacred circle of
our home.
And when you reach that shore,
Each kiss I press upon you now,
Deposit on the pinions of the wind,
And those I love and honor and
adore
Will feel my kisses carried to their
brow.
Ah, flowers, you may fare through,
Conserving still, perhaps, your
native hue;
Yet, far from Fatherland, heroic
loam
To which you owe your life,
The perfume will be gone from you;
For aroma is your soul; it cannot
roam
Beyond the skies which saw it born,
nor e'er forget

José Protacio Mercado y Alonso

Realonda Rizal (1861 - 1896)

To help further educate the Filipino American about their Philippine history, background and culture, one
very important name must be mentioned.

And that name is Dr Jose Rizal.

The following pages serve as a short biography of Jose Rizal. A more thorough writing can be found in
another area of the website but let me continue before providing that information.

Born on June 19, 1861, the fullname of Jose Rizal is Jose Protacio Mecado Rizal Alonso Y Realonga. He
died at a young age of 35 on December 30, 1896. The death anniversary of Jose Rizal is honored as a
Philippine holiday known as Rizal Day. According to many scholars of Jose Rizal, his death marked the
start of the Philippine Revolution.

Born in the town of Calamba and coming from a middle class family in the rice farm business, the
Philippine national hero was one of seven children. Jose Rizal earned a Bachelor of Arts degree honored
as outstanding at Ateneo Municpal de Manila. Since Jose Rizal found out his mother was going blind he
later enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery to study medicine,
specializing in ophthalmology. Claiming discrimination by the Spanish Dominican friars against Filipino
students, Jose Rizal did not complete the program in Manila. Consequently, he traveled to the University
of Central Madrid in Spain to earn his degree in Medicine.

Jose Rizal also attended at the University of Paris, France and later earning his second doctorate at the
University of Heidelberg, Germany.

In Berlin, he was inducted as a member of the Berlin Ethnological Society and the Berlin Anthropological
Society while under the patronage of the famous pathologist Rudolf Virchow. Following custom, Dr Jose
Rizal delivered an address in German in April 1887 before the anthropological society on the structure
and structure and orthography of the Tagalog language. When Jose Rizal left Heidelberg, he left a poem
entitled "A las flores del Heidelberg," The poem was both an evocation and a prayer for the welfare of
his native land and the unification of common values between East and West. T

he many talents of Jose Rizal was described by his German friend, Dr. Adolf Meyer as "stupendous.".
Well-documented studies show that Dr Jose Rizal was a polymath with the ability to master various skills
and subjects, including areas as an ophthalmologist, sculptor, painter, educator, farmer, historian,
inventor, playwright and journalist. In addition to his skill in poetry and creative writing, Jose Rizal touched
on with varying degrees of expertise, including the areas of architecture, cartography, economics,
ethnology, anthropology, sociology, dramatics, martial arts, fencing and pistol shooting.

Conversant in at least ten languages, Dr Jose Rizal was a prolific writer as a poet, essayist, and novelist.
Two famous political works of Jose Rizal include: Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterism inspiring and
advocating peaceful reforms over violent revolution against 330 plus years of Spanish rule.
Even during his early childhood, Jose Rizal advanced his radical political ideas of freedom and individual
rights and as a result enraged the higher political authorities.