A LAS FLORES DE

HEIDELBERG

By: Dr. Jose Rizal

 BACKGROUND OF THE POEM

oems are simply reflections of an author’s feelings based on his experiences and present situation.
While in Heidelberg experiencing the feeling of nostalgia for his parents and his country, Rizal
wrote the poem"To the Flowers of Heidelberg".

hen Rizal soared to Heidelberg in 1886, he was fascinated with the bloom flowers he saw in the
Neckar River.

hose flowers reminded him of the flowers in their home’s garden in Calamba because of his mood
of homesickness.

is poem, To the Flowers of Heidelberg is simply an expression of his sadness as he remembered his
family whom he loves so much. .
n his poem, he also described the flowers as beautiful and
brilliantly attractive which lie in heaven beneath a shiny
bright sky. His poem also shows that he misses his homeland
where he first saw the beauty of life and the beauty of all
creation. Those flowers in Heidelberg were resemblance of
his happy and beautiful experiences and memories in his
homeland where he was far a distance away. Because of
sorrow and loneliness he compensated by writing a poem
about the beauty he saw on the flowers of Heidelberg.
 To The Flowers of Heidelberg
 By: Dr. Jose Rizal
( English version of “ A Las Flores De Heidelberg )

Go to my country, go, foreign flowers,

Planted by the traveler on his way,
And there beneath that sky of blue
That over my beloved towers,
Speak for this traveler to say
What faith in his homeland he breathes to you.

Go and say. . . say that when the dawn

First drew your calyx open there
Beside the River Neckar chill,
You saw him standing by you, very still,
Reflecting on the primrose flush you wear.
 Say that when the morning light
    Her toll of perfume from you wrung,
    While playfully she whispered, "How I love you!"
    He too murmured here above you
    Tender love songs in his native tongue.

That when the rising sun the height

    Of Koenigstuhl in the early morn first spies;
    Is pouring life in the valley, wood, and grove,
    He greets the sun as it begins to rise,
    Which in his native land is blazing straight above.
 And tell them of that day he staid
    And plucked you from the border of the path,
    Amid the ruins of the feudal castle,
    By the River Neckar, and in the silvan shade.
    Tell them what he told you
    As tenderly as he took
    Your plants leaves and pressed them in a book,
    Where now its well worn pages close enfold you.
 Carry, carry, flowers of Rhine,
Love to every love of mine,
Peace to my country and her fertile loam,
Virtue to her women, courage to her men,
Salute those darling ones again,
Who formed the sacred circle of our home.

And when you reach that shore,

Each kiss I press upon you now,
Deposit on the pinions of the wind,
And those I love and honor and adore
Will feel my kisses carried to their brow.
 Ah, flowers, you may fare through,
Conserving still, perhaps, your native hue;
Yet, far from Fatherland, heroic loam
To which you owe your life,
The perfume will be gone from you;
For aroma is your soul; it cannot roam
Beyond the skies which saw it born, nor e'er
forget.
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
n this poem, Jose Rizal effectively employs natural imagery
to express his longing for the Philippines. He also wishes
peace for his country and countrymen, and subsequently
compares a person far from his homeland to a flower losing
its fragrance.

izal, contemplating the flowers that deck the university

town of Heidelberg in spring, was inspired to compose the
following poem exuding intense love of his native land.
Wherever he was, his thoughts always turn to his faraway
homeland, wishing "Peace to my country with fecund soil,
To her women virtue, to her men faith.”
In 1885, the 24-year old Rizal went to Paris, France to pursue his
career as an ophthalmologist. He tried his skills in music and studied
solfeggio, piano and voice culture for a month and a half. He worked
as an assistant to the renowned ophthalmologist, Dr. Louis de
Weckert, and left for Heidelberg after a year. He settled in the house
of a Lutheran,Karl Ulmer and worked in the clinics of famous Polish
and German ophthalmologists, Dr. Javier Galezowsky and Dr. Otto
Becker, respectively. In Heidelberg, he was as tound with the flowers
along the Neckar River, especially the forget-me-nots, which made
him compose the poem, A Las Flores de Heidelberg (To the Flowers of
Heidelberg), on April 22, 1886. It was also in this German city where
the long-distance friendship between Jose Rizal and Ferdinand
Blumentritt began.
 
 MESSAGES OF THE
POEM
DURING THE
EXISTENCE OF RIZAL
izal described his beloved native land by mentioning his
adoration of its clear blue skies that signifies peace and
good climate. He wants the maidens to extend his
message of love, longing and continuous safeguard to the
native land, that his humble heart remains faithful to the
land where he grew up.

t can be seen that on the second stanza that Rizal grew

seeing dawn as the beginning of every single community
activities that reflects the culture of Calamba as a
farming land and that harvest starts at dawn. Hence, it
can also magnify the Filipino attitude of being
industrious.

izal also expressed his appreciation for nature’s

indescribable beauty and inevitable allure of fresh scent
that starts from the sweet caress of dawn until sunrise.
He longed for his hometown as he appreciated the beauty
of the foreign land, Heidelberg.
izal through this poem articulated his
unconditional love for his family, his
countrymen and the nation he dreams to
be. Nevertheless, he only wished eternal
peace for land, that no man shall be
harmed and everyone adheres to
common good. As he wrote, he never
forgot to remind the women of his land
to be strong and courageous for the
trials and challenges they may face.

his poem is a true reflection that Rizal in

a foreign land missed his family and
longs to be with them as he asked in the
poem the maidens to send his sweet kiss
to those he whom he respects and loves.
ooking deeper, this poem can also tell a
story of travel, that during the time of
Rizal, travelers like merchants, students,
treasure hunters, and people from
different walks of life only travel to cross
the lands by sea.

astly, Rizal mentioned in this poem that

“your fragrances you will lose! For
fragrance is a spirit that never can
forsake, and never forgets the sky that
saw its birth”. These lines illuminated the
very essence of the poem - that death
cannot destroy dignity and “non omnis
moriar” not everything dies after death.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
POEM IN PRESENT
TIMES
o the flowers of Heidelberg was written by Rizal to express his liking for
Germany while he was studying there. However, though he liked Germany,
the poem was his way of telling the Filipinos that his loyalty was still to the
Philippines. At the time he wrote the poem, he was homesick and the flowers
reminded him of the ones blooming in their garden at home. In this poem,
Jose Rizal effectively employs natural imagery to express his longing for the
Philippines. He also wishes peace for his country and countrymen, and
subsequently compares a person far from his homeland to a flower losing its
fragrance.

t present times, it signifies the blooming flowers of the generation which is

the teenager girls because of their immature heart and mind they can easily
involve in unnecessary doings such as intercourse to someone that is not
supposed to do base to their ages. They are insecure and immature in
thinking. They need the guidance of an elder or most probably the guidance
of their parents in order to avoid an expected happenings and bad doings.