Ocampo - Rizal Dis Not Write Sa Aking Mga Kabata

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Did young Rizal really write poem for children?

Ambeth R. Ocampo
IN 1892, Jose Rizal began a new novel in Tagalog.
He realized that in order to reach a wider readership in his country, he had to

write in his native tongue.
During this time of exile in Hong Kong, his elder brother, Paciano, had completed
a translation of the “Noli Me Tangere” from the original Spanish into Tagalog
that was corrected and finalized by Rizal.
Envisioned as a popular edition with illustrations by Juan Luna, this book was
never to be. The original manuscript translation by Paciano has since been
missing.
Nevertheless, Rizal completed a chapter of his satirical Tagalog novel and gave it
the title “Makamisa” (After the Mass), but unfortunately he did not have the
energy to complete it.
He stopped writing in Tagalog and began anew in Spanish. The drafts of this
work were first published in 1993 in my book “Makamisa: The Search for Rizal’s
Third Novel.”
Rizal spoke and wrote in Tagalog fluently, but he was unable to write a whole
novel in his mother tongue. This is quite surprising for is he not, like Manuel L.
Quezon, inextricably linked to the adoption of Tagalog as the national language
of the Philippines?
Most quoted line
Isn’t the most quoted line from Rizal’s many poems that from “Sa
AkingMgaKabata” that goes,
“Anghindimarunongmagmahalsasarilingwika/masahol pa sahayop at
malansangisda.” (He who loves not his own language/is worse than a beast and a
stinking fish.)
Did Rizal write this poem at 8 years old? Did Rizal write this poem at all?
No original manuscript, in Rizal’s own hand, exists for “Sa AkingMgaKabata,”

traditionally believed to be his first poem.
Rizal had 35 years to publish or assert authorship. He did not. The poem was
published posthumously, a decade after his execution, as an appendix to “Kun
sinoangkumatha ng ‘Florante: Kasaysayan ng Buhayni Francisco Baltazar’ at
pag-uulatnangkanyangkarununga’tkadakilaan” (Manila: Libreria Manila-
Filatelico, 1906.) by the poet Herminigildo Cruz as follows:
Sa AkingMgaKabata
Kapagkaangbaya’ysadyangumiibig
sakanyangsalitangkaloob ng langit.
sanlangkalayaannasa ring masapit
katulad ng ibongnasahimpapawid.
Pagka’tangsalita’yisangkahatulan
sabayan, sanayo’tmgakaharian,
at angisangtao’ykatuladkabagay
ng alinmanglikhanoongkalayaan.
Anghindimagmahalsakanyangsalita
mahigitsahayop at malansangisda,
kaya angmarapatpagyamaningkusa
natuladsainangtunaynanagpala.
Angwikang Tagalog tulad din sa Latin,

sa Ingles, Kastila, at salitang angel,
sapagkatangPoongmaalamtumingin
angsiyang nag-gawad, nagbigaysaatin.
Angsalitanati’ytulad din saiba

na may alfabeto at sarilingletra
na kaya nawala’ydinatnan ng sigwa
anglundaysalawanoongdakonguna.
Provenance
Tracing the provenance of the poem to its source, Cruz claims to have received
the poem from his friend, the poet Gabriel Beato Francisco, who got it from a
certain SaturninoRaselis of Lukban, a bosom friend of Rizal and teacher in
Majayjay, Laguna, in 1884.
Raselis is alleged to have received a copy of this poem from Rizal himself, a
token of their close friendship.
Unfortunately, Raselis’ name does not appear in Rizal’s voluminous
correspondence, diaries or writings. When Jaime C. de Veyra established the
definitive canon of Rizal’s poetry in 1946 with a compilation published in the
series “Documentos de la Biblioteca Nacional de Filipinas” (Documents from the
National Library of the Philippines) “Sa AkingMgaKabata” was not published in
the original Tagalog but in a free Spanish translation of the Tagalog by Epifanio
de los Santos as “A miscompañeros de niñez.”
Tagalog, according to the 8-year-old Rizal, has its own alphabet and letters. It
goes back to pre-Spanish times. The precocious child even compared Tagalog
with Latin, English, Spanish and “the language of angels,” whatever that is.
Second look
Filipinos raised on textbook history that depicts Rizal as a superhuman genius

should give the poem a second look and ask, “Was it really written by an 8-year-
old from Calamba just learning to read at his mother’s knee?”
The poem could not have been written in 1869 when Rizal was eight based on the
use of the letter “k,” which was a reform in Tagalog orthography proposed by the
mature Rizal.
In Rizal’s childhood they spelled words with a “c” rather than “k.” Further, the
word “kalayaan” (freedom) is used twice. First, in the third line of the first stanza,
there is mention of sanlangkalayaan (pawned freedom).
Was Rizal aware of the colonial condition at this young age? Kalayaan appears
the second time in the last line of the second stanza.
Encounter with ‘kalayaan’
These two references ring a bell because kalayaan as we know it today was not
widely used in the 19th century. As a matter of fact, Rizal encountered the word
first in the summer of 1882 when he was 21 years old!
In a letter to his brother, Paciano, dated Oct. 12, 1886, Rizal related difficulties
encountered with Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell that he was translating from the original
German into Tagalog:
“I’m sending you at last the translation of Wilhelm Tell by Schiller which was
delayed one week, being unable to finish it sooner on account of my numerous
tasks. I’m aware of its many mistakes that I entrust to you and my brothers-in-law
to correct. It is almost a literal translation. I’m forgetting Tagalog a little, as I
don’t speak it with anyone.
“… I lacked many words, for example, for the word Freiheit or liberty, one
cannot use the Tagalog word kaligtasan of course because this means that he was
formerly in some prison, slavery, etc. I encountered in the translation of Amor
Patrio the noun malayá, kalayahan that Marcelo del Pilar used. In the only
Tagalog book I have, Florante [at Laura], I don’t find an equivalent noun.”
‘El Amor Patrio’
“El Amor Patrio” was the first article Rizal wrote on Spanish soil. He wrote it in
Barcelona in the summer of 1882 and it was published in Diariong Tagalog in
August 1882 both in Spanish and a Tagalog translation, “Pag-ibig Sa
TinubuangLupa,” by Marcelo H. del Pilar.
If, as Rizal admitted, he did not encounter the word kalayaan until he was
studying in Europe at 21 years old, how can he have used it at 8 years old in
Calamba?
In light of its complicated provenance and the anachronistic use of the word
kalayaan a shadow of doubt has been cast on “Sa AkingMgaKabata.”
There are only two poems attributed to Rizal in Tagalog, the other is
“Kundiman.” Both are questionable. All his documented poems are in Spanish.
If Rizal did not compose “Sa AkingMgaKabata,” who did?
Our two suspects are the poets Herminigildo Cruz or Gabriel Beato Francisco.
Identifying the true author of “Sa AkingMgaKabata” is important because

millions of Filipino children are miseducated each year during Buwan ng Wika
when they are told that Rizal composed a poem on his mother tongue when he
was 8.
Will the real author of “Sa AkingMgaKabata” please stand up for he who does
not love his own poem/is worse than a beast and a stinking fish (“ang di
magmahalsasarilingtula/mahigitsahayop at malansangisda”).
To My Childhood Companions (Nick Joaquin translation)
Whenever a people truly love

the language given them from above,
lost freedom will they ever try
to regain, as birds yearn for the sky.
For language is a mandate sent
to each people, country and government;
and every man is, like all free
creation, born to liberty.
Who does not love his own tongue is

far worse than a brute or stinking fish,
for we should foster and make it great
like unto a mother blest by fate.
Like Latin, English, Spanish, or

the speech of angels is Tagalog,
for God, a wise provider, it was
who made and handed it to us.
Like the others, our language was equipped
with its own alphabet, its own script,
which were lost when a storm brought down in woe
the barque on the lake long, long ago.
(Editor’s Note: Ambeth R. Ocampo is the chair of the Department of History

at Ateneo de Manila University.)

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INQUIRER.NETError! Filename not specified.

Did young Rizal really write poem for children?

IN 1892, Jose Rizal began a new novel in Tagalog.

He realized that in order to reach a wider readership in his country, he had to

Most quoted line

No original manuscript, in Rizal’s own hand, exists for “Sa AkingMgaKabata,”

Angwikang Tagalog tulad din sa Latin,

Angsalitanati’ytulad din saiba

Filipinos raised on textbook history that depicts Rizal as a superhuman genius

Encounter with ‘kalayaan’

‘El Amor Patrio’

If Rizal did not compose “Sa AkingMgaKabata,” who did?

Identifying the true author of “Sa AkingMgaKabata” is important because

To My Childhood Companions (Nick Joaquin translation)

Whenever a people truly love

Who does not love his own tongue is

Like Latin, English, Spanish, or

(Editor’s Note: Ambeth R. Ocampo is the chair of the Department of History

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