Jose Rizal remembered

VISITING THE RIZAL SHRINE

This is a view today of the Rizal Shrine, the "sanctum sanctorum" of what Fort Santiago means to the Filipino nation. Entrance to the shrine is through a door to the left on coming abeam with the building.

 

The room "Silid ng Pagninilay (Contemplation Room), Prison Cell of Jose Rizal" is located on the ground floor in the western most part of the Rizal Shrine. Two markers, one on each side of a door, say it all. The left marker has the following inscription inside a triangle:

"HERE JOSE RIZAL, IN DECEMBER 1896 WROTE THE FAREWELL POEM SENT TO HIS FAMILY HIDDEN IN A LAMP"

The alcohol lamp [food warmer] that concealed Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios

The right marker says:

"In this cell Jose Rizal was detained from 3 November to the morning of 29 December 1896, falsely charged with rebellion, sedition and formation of illegal societies.

After the reading of the court sentence at 6:00 A.M., 29 December, he was kept in an improvised chapel until his execution at 7:03 A.M., 30 December 1896 on the Luneta, Bagumbayan Field, Manila."

 

The following is Rizal’s family account of what happened when they went to say a pitiful last farewell at sunset the evening before his execution.

"The living sisters say that Rizal was not allowed to embrace his mother. He stamped his foot in anger and said, "Cowards, before very long Spain will be out of the Philippines."

Narcisa says she was not allowed to go near José. He said to her: "Do not permit your sons to go to school as long as Spain rules here."

He tried to give some remembrance to each member of the family. He told Narcisa that she was to have his pen and a reclining wicker chair, which his relatives had brought so that he would not have to sleep on the ground.

The other sisters had to enter one by one and could not touch their brother. To Narcisa's daughter Angelica, he gave his handkerchief. But he soon needed it. As he said farewell to Maria, he asked for her handkerchief. He put a corner of it between his teeth and twisted it with his hands to suppress his emotions. . . "

When Trinidad came, he said to her:

"I want you to have my alcohol lamp [food warmer]." Then he added in English, "There is something inside."

A few minutes before 7:00AM on the morning of December 30, 1896, Rizal was taken to this room in a nearby building east of the Rizal Shrine.

 

After tying his hands behind his back, Rizal’s march to martyrdom began..

Painted shoe prints trace the possible path which Rizal took on the way to his execution spot.

A photographic copy of his execution..

 

Morir Es Descansar (To Die Is To Rest)

The above  phrase in the last line of the last (14th) stanza of Dr. Jose Rizal’s poem "Mi Ultimo Adios" (My Last Farewell) which he wrote shortly before he was executed by a firing squad on December 30 1896. To wit:

¡Adiós, padres y hermanos, trozos del alma mía,
amigos de la infancia, en el perdido hogar;
Dad gracias, que descanso del fatigoso día;
¡Adíos, dulce extranjera, mi amiga, mi alegría;
¡Adíos, queridos seres! ¡Morir es descansar!

At least twelve translators of the poem used two filters, beauty and accuracy, in coming up with their own translation of the poem. (Charles Derbyshire translated the above title into "In death there is rest").

I go for accuracy.----#

--SS