John Michael C.

Atienza

BIT – ELT 4201

Sa Aking Mga Kabata by Jose P. Rizal

Introduction

Did young Rizal really write poem for children? "Sa Aking mga Kabata"

(English: To My Fellow Youth) is a poem about the love of one's native language written

in Tagalog. It is widely attributed to the Filipino national hero José Rizal, who

supposedly wrote it in 1869 at the age of eight. There is no evidence, however, to support

authorship by Rizal and several historians now believe it to be a hoax. The actual author

of the poem is suspected to have been the poets Gabriel Beato Francisco or Herminigildo

Cruz.

The poem was widely taught in Philippine schools to point out Rizal's

precociousness and early development of his nationalistic ideals.

A passage of the poem often paraphrased as “Ang hindì marunong magmahal sa

sariling wikà, masahol pa sa hayop at malansang isdâ”(English: 'He that knows not to

love his own language, is worse than beasts and putrid fish') is widely quoted to promote

the use of Tagalog among Filipinos. It is encountered most frequently during the Buwan

ng Wika ('Language Month'), a commemoration of the establishment of the Filipino

language as the national language of the Philippines

Body:

Rizal is one of the persons always linked to the National Language, along with

Manuel L. Quezon. However, one may ask, why didn't he write a Tagalog novel? Both

his published novels were in Spanish, the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. (On

my succeeding articles, I'd write why he really wrote in Spanish.) Actually, he did try to

write a whole novel in Tagalog. He realized that in order to reach a wider readership in

his country he had to write in his native tongue. He started it on 1892. Meanwhile, when

he was in Hongkong, his brother Paciano completed his Tagalog translation of the Noli. It

was edited by Jose Rizal himself, and with illustrations from Juan Luna. Unfortunately,

the original manuscript was lost shortly after Paciano's death and was never found till this

day. If it remains as an extant manuscript, it might replace the standard Tagalog

translation of Noli by Virgilio Almario. Back to the Tagalog novel, he never gave a name

to it, the title "Makamisa" is only the title of the first chapter. Contrary to what other

biographers state, the third novel is Makamisa, not "Tagalog Nobility". The reason is that

the "Tagalog Nobility" does not fit Rizal's description of the third novel, the Makamisa

does. Rizal's description could be found at his letter to Blumentritt, dated September 22,

1891: "I am thinking of writing a third novel, a novel in the modern sense of the word,

but this time politics will not find much space in it, but ethics will play the principal role.

I shall deal mainly with the habits and customs of the Filipinos, and only two Spaniards,

the friar curate and the lieutenant of the Guardia Civil will be there. I wish to be there. I

wish to be humorous, satirical and witty, to weep and to laugh, to laugh amidst tears, that

is, to cry bitterly." He discontinued the third novel because he said he's forgetting
Tagalog a little, he's not speaking it to anyone. Anyway, he rewrote it in Spanish, but did

not finish it either.

Rizal spoke and wrote Tagalog fluently, but he was unable to write a whole novel

in his mother tongue. It's surprising since one of his most quoted lines is from Sa aking

mga Kababata": "ang hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika/masahol pa sa hayop at

malansang isda." Did Rizal write this poem at eight? Did Rizal write this poem at all?*

No original and extant manuscript exists for his traditionally believed first poem.

Rizal had at least 27 years to publish or assert authorship but did not. It was published

posthumously as an appendix to "Kun sino ang kumatha ng Florante: Kasaysayan ng

Buhay ni Francisco Baltazar at pag-uulat nang kanyang karununga't kadakilaan" (Manila:

Libreria Manila-Filatelico, 1906) by the poet Herminigildo Cruz. He claimed to have

recieved it from a friend, the poet Gabriel Beato Francisco, who got it from a certain

Saturnino Raselis of Lukban, an allegedly bosom friend of Rizal and teacher in Majayjay,

Laguna in 1884. He claimed to have gotten it from Rizal himself, as a token of their

friendship. However, his name doesn't appear in Rizal's writings.

Rizal did not write the poem at eight because of two reasons: 1) He couldn't have

used the letter k, which was a reform in Tagalog orthography proposed by a mature Rizal.

In his childhood, they spelled it with c not k 2) The word kalayaan appears in the poem

twice, which Rizal knew only when he was 21!

 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.

Historian Ambeth Ocampo, National Artist of the Philippines and writer Virgilio

S. Almario and others have debunked Rizal's traditional authorship of the poem based on

the following:

The poem uses the Tagalog word kalayaan (liberty/freedom). However, Rizal first

encountered the word at least by 1882, when he was 25 years old – 17 years after he

supposedly wrote the poem. Rizal first came across kalayaan, or as it was

spelled, kalayahan, through a Tagalog translation by Marcelo H. del Pilar of Rizal's own

essay El Amor Patrio.

The fluency and sophistication of the Tagalog used in the poem also do not match Rizal's

grasp of the language. Although Rizal's native tongue was Tagalog, his early education

was all in Spanish. In the oft-quoted anecdote of the moth and the flame from Rizal's

memoir, the children's book he and his mother were reading was entitled El Amigo de los

Niños, and it was in Spanish. He would later lament his difficulties in expressing himself

in Tagalog. In 1886, Rizal was in Leipzig working on a Tagalog translation of Friedrich

Schiller's William Tell, which he sent home to his brother Paciano. In the accompanying
letter, Rizal speaks of his difficulty finding an appropriate Tagalog equivalent

of Freiheit (freedom), settling on kalayahan. Rizal cited Del Pilar's translation of his own

essay as his source for kalayahan. Rizal also attempted to write Makamisa (the intended

sequel to El filibusterismo) in Tagalog, only to give up after only ten pages and start

again in Spanish.

The 8-year old Rizal's apparent familiarity with Latin and English is also

questionable. In his memoir as a student in Manila, a year after the poem's supposed

writing date, he admitted only having 'a little' knowledge of Latin from lessons by a

friend of his father. Rizal also did not study English until 1880, more than ten years after

the poem was allegedly written. English was not a prominent language in the Philippines

in 1869 and its presence in the poem is believed to betray later authorship during

the American Commonwealth of the Philippines.

The poem also makes use of the letters 'K' and 'W', whereas during Rizal's

childhood, Tagalog spelling was based on Spanish orthography where neither letters were

used. The letters 'C' and 'U' were used instead. (i.e., the poem would have been spelled

"Sa Aquing Mañga Cabata") The shift in Tagalog and later Filipino orthography from 'C'

to 'K' and 'U' to 'W' were proposed by Rizal himself as an adult, and was later made

official in the early 20th century by the Philippine government as per grammarian Lope

K. Santos's proposal.

The first stanza speaks that Rizal wants us to love our ain linguistic

communication and it is a gift from above that was given onto us to be thankful of. It is a

approval that like any other nationalities we were gifted of. We are cognizant that Rizal

was motivated to compose this verse form during the clip of Spanish domination because
we were under their settlement. He addresses us to love our linguistic communication for

it is our measure towards autonomy. As Rizal correlated it to a bird that can freely wing

up in the sky. it has a will to wing wherever it wants to travel and whatever it wants to

make. But if this bird is in a ululation like us. Filipinos who cannot stand for what we

believe is right. We will ne’er see independency.

The following stanza implies that a state that loves a God-given linguistic

communication besides loves freedom. “For linguistic communication is the concluding

justice and mention upon the people in the land where it holds and sway.” A Filipino who

loves his native lingua will decidedly contend for his freedom apparently like a bird

“lumilipad nang pagkataas-taas parity SA mom malawak na liliparan” an individual who

preserves the Markss of its autonomy. as adult male continue his independency.

Language is not simply a communicating tool but as an look of one’s individuality of

one’s single and societal consciousness. Without a common individuality, there could be

no existent sense of nationhood. Love and usage of one’s native linguas was one of the

badges of a true nationalist.

In the succeeding stanza, Rizal compared the individual who doesn’t love his

native lingua from a putrid fish. Just like a fish which originally lives in H2O. Malodors

every clip it goes out of its topographic point. Like some of the Filipinos that we could

detect. We could see that when they have reached a foreign state and adapted the foreign

linguistic communication and civilization. They tend to bury their ain and as they have

adapted that civilization. They will be so disdainful to contemn and contemn their ain

fellowmen. They hide and cover their individuality for being a Filipino even though it’s
really discernable. They merely make themselves look foolish and black and with the last

two lines from the 3rd stanza. Rizal addressed to us that our ain linguistic communication

must be cherished and should not be forgotten because it’s a really valuable ownership of

our ain state.

Fascination when we discovered that Rizal was merely an eight-year-old chap

when he wrote this verse form. At a really immature age and a male child who grew up

talking several linguistic communications. it is really inspiring to hear person say these

words with such great patriotism with great love of his ain lingua. Reflecting our yester

year we saw ourselves unconsciously sponsoring foreign linguistic communications. We

wanted to be those Whites who have slang linguas. Where we have our native linguas has

gone? We were deriving colonial outlook without our consciousness. The bad

intelligence is. We allow it to go on. And what Rizal was seeking to echo is that even our

really ain

Finally, the last stanza implies that we merely like the other states bing hold its

ain exceeding features that we can be greatly proud of those distinguishable qualities of

being a Filipino such that the blood itself that runs through your venas. The civilization.

and your innate YOU is a certified Filipino that you can ne’er kill sad to state. The basis

established by our sires to come up with a better state is now into

annihilation…Annihilation caused by the inflow of challenges doomed to botch what we

have.
Conclusion: