Dapitan, 31 July 1894

My Brother,

When I received your note today, I felt very sad. Though I did not come to know your father, I share your
sorrow. My parents are also old and some day they will also go! Yes, how lonely we shall be in this world!
Blessed are those who rest at last! When shall I be permitted to finish the work? May our father rest in
peace!

My life passes peacefully and monotonously! To kill time and to be able to help a little the inhabitants of
this place, I have become a merchant. I buy abaca and I send it to Manila. Luck has favored me this
month; I made P200 in one stroke.

How is my German? I believe it is a little oxidized.(l)

You would certainly oblige me, my dear, if you send me a copy of that interesting account of the Chinese
about my country.(2) Do you remember that Mr. Hirth's translation?

My Tagalog grammar about the Tagal is long ago finished: I intend to publish it as soon as I shall be set
at liberty. It will bring to light so many things that I believe nobody thought of. I make references to the
Bisaya, Malay, and Madecassis(3) according to Dr. Brandstetter.(4) Greet him, if you ever write to him. My
life now is quiet, peaceful, retired and without glory, but I think it is useful too. I teach here the poor but
intelligent boys reading, Spanish, English, mathematics, and geometry; moreover I teach them to behave
like men. I taught the men here how to get a better way of earning their living and they think I am right.
We have begun and success crowned our trials.

This Gewalttätigkeit exerced upon me gave me a new language, the Bisaya; taught me how to steer a
vessel and to manage a canoe; made me better acquainted with my country and presented me with some
thousands of dollars! God can send you your fortune amidst the persecutions of your fiends! How do you
find my English?

You do not tell me about your dear family. How are Madame and little Mlle. Loleng? When I think of her
(Loleng) I see her always following the coach with her schoolbag, running after us like a butterfly around
a flower! The little one was greeting us with her charming little hand and smiling at us with her eyes. Ah,
now she is no longer a child and one cannot play and frolic with her! The golden days of Leitmeritz, as
you would say, are over, they are over. It is a delightful little vision that shall never be erased from my
memory. Tell them for me that I kiss their hands!(5)

I try to write you in various languages because here I speak with no one in these tongues and I am
forgetting them. Thanks to our friend A. B. Meyer I have German books. By the way, today I am sending
him birds and animals. If he wishes to send me books in exchange, I would prefer that you suggest to him
a good complete treatise on mathematics in French. You ought to know better than I the best authors of
mathematics. I ask for French for its clarity and method. Is there something better than Cirode? If it
should cost too much never mind. From Cebu certain Messrs. Koch send me Das Echo and Fliegende
Blätter; from Manila the Ethnographic Review. I have a magazine, Scientific American, and from London
thev send me the Saturday Review! I am well provided with reading matter. I operate on three or five
patients a week. Many are poor but some pay.
I should like to close this letter in the language of Dante but it seems to me that what I knew before I have
now forgotten. Lucky are you who are in Europe, in correspondence with literary men and scholars and
you can exchange ideas whenever you please. As for me I am here

Nel nezzo del cammin' della mia vitta

ini una selva oscura ...(6)

Enough for now. Another time I shall be a little more discreet in my language.

Your friend who never forgets you,

Rizal

I got operated my dear Mother of cataract. Thank God she is perfectly well now and can write and read
with easy. She and my young sister send you their best friendship and to your dear family too.
(1)
The following three paragraphs are in English.
(2)
It refers to the travel account of the Chinese geographer Chau Ju-Kua in his book Chu-fan-tse in the
last quarter of the XII century, in which he describes also the Philippine Archipelago under the name Ma-
yi among the countries in the Far East visited by him.
(3)
Could it be the Malagasi of Madagascar?
(4)
Dr. Renward Brandstetter of Lucerne, distinguished student of the Malayans.
(5)
This paragraph is in French.
(6)
From Dante Alighieri's La Divina Commedia, Canto I, stanza 1:
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.
(In the middle of the journey of our life
I found myself in a dark wood,
where the straight way was lost.)
(7)
In Rizal's English.

(Crizel Ruth Ghelmae G. Ricaro 2014-05725 PI 100 TTh 10-11:30 AM)

Tugon sa liham ni Rizal (bilang si Blumentritt):

20 Setyembre 1894

PROF. F. BLUMENTRITT
LEITMERITZ, BOHEMIA
AUSTRIA

Dr. José Rizal

Dapitan

Sa aking pinakamatalik na kaibigan:

Tulad nga ng isang modernong kasabihan, “In every cloud there is a silver lining.” May dahilan kung
bakit sa Dapitan ka napadpad, aking kapatid. Hindi ito isang parusa na inaakala nila, kundi isang plano ng
mahabaging Ama, o kung sino mang nakakataas sa ating lahat.

Nagagalak ako sa mga naidulot mo sa mga taga-Dapitan, at sa buti ng buhay na naidulot nila sa iyo.
Mukhang onti na lang at magiging milyonaryo ka na diyan! Ako’y huwag mo sanang kakalimutan, aking
compadre.

Mabuti ang iyong ideya na ipriserba ang mga lenggwaheng iyong nalalaman, kaya malaya kang gamitin
ang ating pagsusulatan nang hindi mawala sayo ang matagal mong pinagaralan at pinaghusayan. Kapag
ako’y nakahanap ng kopya ng pagsasalin ni Ginoong Hirth ay aking ipapadala sayo agad. Alam mo
naman na buo ang suporta ko sa iyo at sa iyong pagpapalawak ng kaalaman. Mas lalong marami kang
matutulungan.

Naging malungkot man ang sinapit ng aking Ama, dahil kay Madame at kay Loleng ay nabubuhayan ako
at nabibigyan ng pag-asa. Tunay mang paunti-unting nawawala ang mga masasayang araw ng Leitmeritz,
ngunit sa mga puso natin ay hindi ito kukupas. Gusto ka na makita ulit ni Loleng, bumisita ka dito kapag
ika’y nakalaya na sa wakas.

Ako na ang bahala sa mga ipapadalang libro sayo, kapatid. Ipagpatuloy mo lang ang iyong misyon sa
iyong bayan. Mawala man tayo sa ating landas, darating ang araw na tayo’y makakabalik rin sa tamang
daan, hangga’t sa nag-aalab sa ating puso ang nais nating tapat.

Sa ating muling pagsusulatan,

Fernando Blumentritt

(Crizel Ruth Ghelmae G. Ricaro 2014-05725 PI 100 TTh 10-11:30 AM)