José Rizal: A las flores de Heidelberg/ To The Flowers Of Heidelberg

¡Id a mi patria, id extranjeras flores
sembradas del viajero en el camino,
y bajo su azul cielo,
que guarda mis amores,
contad del peregrino
la fé que alienta por su patrio suelo!
Id y decid…; decid que cuando el alba
vuestro cáliz abrió por vez primera,
cabe el Neckar helado,
le vísteis silencioso a vuestro lado
pensando en su constante primavera.
Decid que cuando el alba,
que roba vuestro aroma,
cantos de amor jugando os susurraba,
él también murmuraba
cantos de amor en su natal idioma;
que cuando el sol la cumbre
del Koenigsthul en la mañana dora
y con su tibia lumbre
anima el valle, el bosque y la espesura,
saluda en ese sol, aún en su aurora,
al que en su patria en su cenit fulgura.
Y contad aquel día
cuando os cojía* al borde del sendero,
entre las ruinas del feudal castillo
orilla al Neckar o en la selva umbría.
Contad lo que os decía,
cuando, con gran cuidado,
entre las páginas de un libro usado
vuestras flexibles hojas oprimía.
Llevad, llevad ¡oh flores!
amor a mis amores
paz a mi país y a su fecunda tierra,
fé a sus hombres, virtud a sus mujeres,
salud a dulces seres
que el paternal sagrado hogar encierra…
Cuando toquéis la playa,
el beso que os imprimo
depositadlo en alas de la brisa,
porque con ella vaya,
y bese cuando adoro, amo y estimo.
Mas ¡ay! llegaréis, flores,
conservaréis, quizás, vuestros colores;
pero lejos del patrio, heroico suelo,
a quién debeis la vida
perderéis los olores;
que aroma es alma, y no abandona el cielo
cuya luz viera en su nacer, ni olvida.

José Rizal


To The Flowers of Heidelberg

Go to my homeland, foreigners' flowers,

sown by a wayfarer along the road,

and under that blue sky,

who guards all my loves,

recount of the pilgrim

the fealty he cherishes for his fatherland.

Go and say—say that when dawn

first opened your petals

by the frozen river Neckar

you saw him silent at your side

contemplating his home's own forever Spring.

Say that when sunrise,

that robs you of your scent,

was whispering love songs in your ears

he too was murmuring songs of love in his native tongue;

that when the sun gilds the summit of Mount Koenigsthul

in the morning and with his warm light brings the valley to life,

the forest and the fastness--he hails the same sun

dawning there blazing at its zenith in his native land.

And tell of the day

when he gathered you
among the ruins of a feudal castle

along the trail beside the Neckar

or in the shaded forest.

Tell what he told you

when with greatest care

he pressed your pliant petals

between the pages of a second-hand book.

Carry—carry, oh flowers,

love to my loves.

Peace to my country

and its fertile earth,

faith to its men, virtue to its women,

and health and wellness to all sweet beings

which the sacred hearth of homeland enfolds.

When you touch upon the beach,

the kiss I put on your lips—sow it

in the wings of the breeze, so that

I might fly with her and kiss them when

I come upon what I worship, love, and cherish.

But-oh!--you will bring with you and preserve

perhaps your colors,

but far from the heroic soil of your home,

to whom you owe your life,

you will lose your scents.

For fragrance is soul and neither forsakes

nor forgets the heaven whose light saw its birth.

Tr. EAC

E. A. Costa   July 27, 2016    Granada, Nicaragua

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NB: *cogía. Königsthul is the high hill or mount above Heidelburg. José Rizal

is a National hero of Philippine independence. As an ophthalmologist, he completed

his specialization at Heidelberg. He was multilingual and also a poet, a novelist,

an essayist, an architect and pursued several other callings. He was executed

by the Spanish on December 30, 1896.