21 st

Century
(Time: Tuesday 10:00-12:30
Wednesday 1:30-3:30)

Submitted to: eljohn d. Villaflor

Submitted by: Mabel m. Dagooc
 Interpretation of my last farewell

These are the words of one about to die for his country. He expresses no regret but only gladness,
knowing that in giving his life, he is giving his country the greatest gift any citizen could offer.

Here Rizal says that it does not matter where one dies, but why one dies and to what purpose. Whether
it’s “scaffold, open field, conflict or martyrdom’s site,” all death hold the same honor if given for home
and Country.

Rizal’s execution was set at sunrise, thus the meaning of the first and second lines. He employs the
visual senses in his poetic use of color, and then in the third and fourth lines, adds the bright red tint of
his blood to the scene, and gilds it with golden sunlight. The use of these devices ignites passion in the
reader, as it is felt – a hundred times more so – in the writer, even without explicit use of words
signifying feeling

These are the words of one about to die for his country. He expresses no regret but only gladness,
knowing that in giving his life, he is giving his country the greatest gift any citizen could offer.

Here Rizal says that it does not matter where one dies, but why one dies and to what purpose. Whether
it’s “scaffold, open field, conflict or martyrdom’s site,” all death hold the same honor if given for home
and Country.

Rizal’s execution was set at sunrise, thus the meaning of the first and second lines. He employs the
visual senses in his poetic use of color, and then in the third and fourth lines, adds the bright red tint of
his blood to the scene, and gilds it with golden sunlight. The use of these devices ignites passion in the
reader, as it is felt – a hundred times more so – in the writer, even without explicit use of words
signifying feeling.

Since his childhood, even as other children dreamed of childish things, Rizal dreamed of seeing his
country free, esteemed, and with head held high.

Here, he showers her with praise. He is his life’s fancy, his ardent and passionate desire. He shouts
“Hail!” as many would to their God. He says in the third line that it is sweet to fall so that his country
may acquire fullness, and then continues on in the succeeding lines, “to die to give you life.” But his joy
does not end in the act of dying, but continues beyond the grave, where he shall sleep in his country’s
mystic land through eternity. As one dies for God, Rizal dies for country. And as one looks forward to
heaven, Rizal’s heaven – in these lines, at least – lies in being buried in the land of his ancestors.

In this stanza, Rizal likens his soul to that of “a simple humble flower amidst thick grasses.” The use of
this comparison says a lot about how Rizal sees himself – timid, simple, humble, surrounded by the
unrelenting forces of society. He imagines that after his death, he will live on in the bosom of his
motherland, and never cease to enjoy her love, which he begs her to express with a kiss.

Rizal’s love for nature is again depicted in these next four lines. It is interesting that he enumerates the
moon, the dawn, the wind, and a bird to pay homage to his grave, yet does not mention close friends or
specific people. Perhaps it is a simple image of his reunion with nature that he wants to bring to mind;
perhaps it is also an expression of the loneliness and isolation that he has felt and continues to feel in his
fight for freedom.

The mention here, of a friend, is the closest he gets to company. And the mention of God in the fourth
line is the closest he gets to praying for a spiritual heaven. That Rizal beseeches his country to pray that
his soul may rest in God is in line with the Roman Catholic belief that all men are sinners and that
salvation is to be earned and cannot be determined before the grave.

In these four lines he gives his motherland a list of the things he wishes her to pray for. He remembers
all of the martyrs who have suffered the same fate as he will, who have died for their country; the
mothers, wives, and children they have left behind who suffer no less for being abandoned. He also, in a
hopeful closing note, asks her to pray for herself.

Clearly Rizal has not imagined that a monument would eventually be built over his grave and has
pictured his final resting place as a humble cemetery where he shall, even after death, sing a song of
devotion for his motherland.

In this next stanza, Rizal wishes to then be “plowed by man” when his grave is no longers remembered,
and be scattered as he returns to be part of the dust that covers the land he had died for. What actually
happens in real life, though, is an uncanny parallel. On December 30, 1896, on the day of his execution,
Rizal’s remains were buried in an unmarked grave in the Paco Cemetery. Years later, however, his
remains were exhumed and on December 30, 1912, they were brought to their final resting place in the
base of the monument at Luneta.

The first line in this stanza begins following the assumption that our hero’s ashes have now been spread
over the land. Rizal envisions that once he has returned to her in this manner, it will no longer matter if
the country forgets him because he will be with her, everywhere, as dust in the atmosphere, blowing in
the skies, in the wind, and still singing songs and murmuring words of devotion.

Here we come to a more submissive yet hopeful tone. Rizal bids farewell to his one great love – his
country – and yet looks forward to being with God, where there are no slaves, tyrants or hangmen.

To close, Rizal now finally mentions specific people: parents, brothers, friends of his childhood. In other
translations, the fourth line reads, “Adios sweet-tender foreigner—my friend, my happiness,” which
historians have interpreted to allude to Josephine Bracken, the daughter of an Anglo-Saxon father and a
Chinese mother, whom many believe – although it is frequently challenged – he secretly married an
hour before his death.