Did Jose Rizal writeSa aking mga Kabata
The hearsay: In 1869, the then eight-year-old Jose Rizal wrote
his first Tagalog poem. EntitledSa aking mga Kabata(To My Fellow
Children), it soon immortalized the lineang hindi marunong magmahal
sa sariling wika ay masahol pa sa hayop at malansang isda(he who
loves not his own language is worse than a beast and a stinking
fish).
Fact check:To this day, no manuscript linking Rizal to the poem
has been identified yet. And lets admit it, Rizal was probably too
busy playing with his dog and siblings to even thought of making a
poem mentioning the wordkalayaan(freedom). In the first place,
Rizal was already 21 years old when he first encountered such
word.
In addition to that, the poem was only published ten years after
Rizals death, leading historians into questioning its authenticity.
PoetsHerminigildo Cruz andGabriel Beato Francisco have since been
linked to the poem but so far, the case of the lost author remains
an open mystery.
(http://www.filipiknow.net/jose-rizal-myths/)
Something shy about Rizal poemDid Jose Rizal really write Sa
Aking Mga Kabata?
Every year in August, students in the Philippines celebrate
Buwan ng Wika (Language Month) and, after 75 years of thenational
language, educators still nd it necessary to invoke thenger-wagging
admonition against neglecting ones ownlanguage: Ang hindi magmahal
sa sariling wika ay higit sa hayop atmalansang isda [One who does
not love his own language isworse than a beast and a stinking
sh].
Calling someone a stinking sh might sound a bit childish,but it
could be forgiven since it was supposedly a child whowrote this
now-famous accusation. The line is a slightlymangled quote from the
poem Sa Aking Mga Kabata [To MyFellow Youth], which, as any
Filipino schoolteacher will tell you, was written by the national
hero, Jose Rizal, when he wasonly eight years old.Even though
generations of children have heard this poem hailed as an example
of Rizals natural genius, a few academicssuch as Virgilio Almario,
Ambeth Ocampo, Nilo Ocampo andothers have expressed doubts that
young Pepe really wrote the poem. Well hear what they had to say
later.
I rst read this poem many years ago when I was learning the
Filipino language. The idea that it might be a hoax never entered
my mind, though I doubted that Rizal was so young when he composed
it. I thought some zealous biographer might have concocted that
part of the story, like George Washingtons cherry tree
incident.
Many years later, in 2007, I wanted to use the famous malansang
isda line in an article, 1 but I couldnt nd the ofcial version of
the poem. There are a few different versions, each with slight
variations in some of the lines and even the title is not
consistent; sometimes kabata, sometimes kababata. It seems that
there is noofcial version or even an original manuscript to
consult.
While re-reading the poem, one word struck me like a
thunderbolt: it was kalayaan. The word, which means freedom and
liberty, reminded me of a letter that Jose Rizal wrote to his
brother Paciano in 1886. Rizal had written a Tagalog translation of
Friedrich Schillers German play, Wilhelm Tell and he wanted Paciano
to review it.
Rizals manuscript
From a historians point of view, documentation for this poem is
sadly lacking, wrote Ambeth Ocampo, then-future chair of the
National Historical Institute (NHI), in a 1991 newspaper article.
The manuscript, he continued, is not, and never seems to have been,
extant.
This is quite signicant because Rizal was very meticulous about
documenting every facet of his life. From his earliest childhood
memories, recorded in his student diaries in Manila, to his Ultimo
Adios on the eve of his execution, Rizal wrote about it. While
studying in Madrid in 1882, he sent this instruction to his sister
Maria in the Philippines:I should like you to keep all my letters
in Spanish that begin, Mis queridos padres y hermanos, because in
them I relate all that has happened to me. When I get home I shall
collect them and clarify them.Ambeth Ocampo said in another article
in 1996:It is clear from Rizals letters, diaries, and other
writings that he meticulously planned both his life and death down
to the last detail. Nothing was left to chance, not even the
choreography of his death.
Ocampos point was that Jose Rizal consciously cultivated his
legacy as a hero. Certainly this poem should have had a prominent
place in that legacy, but, apparently, Rizal was oblivious of it.
If the poem was, in fact, his earliest knownrevolutionary
utterance, as Austin Coates described it, surely Rizal would have
remembered it in 1889 when he described his actual reformist
awakening to Mariano Ponce. He remembered the Gomburza martyrdoms
of 1872, which happened three years after the poem was allegedly
composed.
Since Rizals death, hundreds of his personal letters and other
writings have been published, but, apparently, he never saved a
copy of this now-famous poem or even bothered to mention it in his
entire lifetime of writing. Why not? The reason is inescapable: he
knew nothing about the poem and had no connection to it, excep for
what others claimed after his death.
Where did the poem come from?
The earliest documented appearance of Sa Aking Mga Kabata was in
a book published in 1906, almost ten years after Rizals death.
Author Hermenegildo Cruz presented it as an example of modern
naturalist Tagalog poetry in Kun Sino ang Kumath ng Florante [The
Person who Composed Florante].The poem, like the rest of the book,
was rendered using the new Tagalog spelling that Rizal himself had
helped to develop in the mid 1880s.
If Cruz possessed an original manuscript of the poem, he
apparently updated it from the standard Tagalog orthography of the
1860s, which followed Spanish spelling conventions and did not use
certain letters that appear in this version, such as K and W.Cruz
introduced the work as a Tagalog language poem written by the hero
Jose Rizal in 1869 when he was only about eight years old. In a
footnote, he added this about the poems provenance:For this poem I
am indebted to my friend, Mr. Gabriel BeatoFrancisco. This was
given to him by Mr. Saturnino Raselis, anative of Lukban, who was a
teacher (maestro) in Mahayhay in 1884. This gentleman was a very
close friend of Rizal who gavehim (the teacher) a copy of this poem
himself, a symbol,apparently, of their close friendship.
Gabriel Francisco was a poet, novelist and the author of an 1899
play, Ang Katipunan. Mr. Saturnino Raselis, however, is a bit of a
mystery. So far, I have found no mention of this very close friend
of Rizal anywhere except in this footnote by Cruz. A letter from
Rizals brother-in-law, Manuel Hidalgo, reported the cholera death
of a Judge Saturnino in Calamba in 1882 but our Maestro Raselis(or
Racelis) was apparently alive and well in Majayjay in 1884. The
Racelis clan of Lucban, Quezon has a web site showing their family
tree reaching back to before 1870, but nobody named Saturnino is
listed.
Another origin story
Austin Coates had a different story with even fewer details
about where this poem, or perhaps another copy of it, came from. In
his 1968 biography of Jose Rizal, he wrote, This poem, copied from
hand to hand, is said to have made a deep impression on Tagalog
poets and those few others interested whom it reachedand in a
footnote, he added, One of the very rare copies of this poem came
many years later into the hands of Antonio Luna, the Filipino
revolutionary general to whom it owes its survival.
While Coates book is generally considered one of the better
biographies of Jose Rizal, he did not provide extensive information
about the sources of specic claims such as this because he was
writing for the general public rather than academics. He offered
nothing further about Lunas connection to the poem, however, the
part about the popularity of the poem among Tagalog poets seems to
echo what Pascual Poblete wrote in his 1909 biography of Rizal:
The public came to recognize his skill in poetry when he was
only eight years old because of a beautiful poem that he composed,
which astounded all the Tagalog poets in the province of
Laguna.
Who really wrote Sa Aking Mga Kabata?
At this point we can only speculate. Since Cruz was apparently
the rst to bring the poem to public attention, I would suspect that
either he or one of his sources was the true author. And since we
cant even be sure at this point if the schoolteacher Saturnino
Racelis ever existed, we are left with only Cruz and the
poet/playwright/novelist, Francisco. Did Francisco dupe Cruz with a
phoney Rizal poem or were they in cahoots? Did one of these men
commit a fraud bypassing off his own work as Rizals or as Nilo
Ocampo speculated did their unquestioning admiration for the
national hero simply lead them to attribute an anonymous poem to
Rizal by mistake? (See part 1 of this series) With only
circumstantial evidence and my suspicions I would place my bets on
the poet, Gabriel Beato Francisco, as being the real author of Sa
Aking Mga Kabata.Next time well look into some of the possible
reasons why this poem might have been attributed to Jose Rizal and
why it has been so successful.
(http://www.pilipino-express.com/pdfs/inotherwords/Something%20Fishy%20About%20Rizal%20Poem.pdf)
Ambeth Ocampo: Rizal did not write Sa Aking Mga Kabata
Finally.
Two years ago, I contended that Rizal never wrote Sa Aking Mga
Kabata which reeked of Tagalista fervor as well as dubious,
unRizalistic entries in almost each line. Early this morning, no
less than the countrys foremost historian today, Ambeth R. Ocampo,
finally ended the issue.
Did young Rizal really write poem for children?By Ambeth R.
OcampoPhilippine Daily Inquirer
IN 1892, Jose Rizal began a new novel in Tagalog.He realized
that in order to reach a wider readership in his country, he had to
write in his native tongue.During this time of exile in Hong Kong,
his elder brother, Paciano, had completed a translation of the Noli
Me Tangere from the original Spanish into Tagalog that was
corrected and finalized by Rizal.
Envisioned as a popular edition with illustrations by Juan Luna,
this book was never to be. The original manuscript translation by
Paciano has since been missing.Nevertheless, Rizal completed a
chapter of his satirical Tagalog novel and gave it the title
Makamisa (After the Mass), but unfortunately he did not have the
energy to complete it.He stopped writing in Tagalog and began anew
in Spanish. The drafts of this work were first published in 1993 in
my book Makamisa: The Search for Rizals Third Novel.Rizal spoke and
wrote in Tagalog fluently, but he was unable to write a whole novel
in his mother tongue. This is quite surprising for is he not, like
Manuel L. Quezon, inextricably linked to the adoption of Tagalog as
the national language of the Philippines?Most quoted line
Isnt the most quoted line from Rizals many poems that from Sa
Aking Mga Kabata that goes, Ang hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling
wika/masahol pa sa hayop at malansang isda. (He who loves not his
own language/is worse than a beast and a stinking fish.)Did Rizal
write this poem at 8 years old? Did Rizal write this poem at all?No
original manuscript, in Rizals own hand, exists for Sa Aking Mga
Kabata, traditionally believed to be his first poem.Rizal had 35
years to publish or assert authorship. He did not. The poem was
published posthumously, a decade after his execution, as an
appendix to Kun sino ang kumatha ng Florante: Kasaysayan ng Buhay
ni Francisco Baltazar at pag-uulat nang kanyang karunungat
kadakilaan (Manila: Libreria Manila-Filatelico, 1906.) by the poet
Herminigildo Cruz as follows:
Sa Aking Mga KabataKapagka ang bayay sadyang umiibigsa kanyang
salitang kaloob ng langit.sanlang kalayaan nasa ring masapitkatulad
ng ibong nasa himpapawid.Pagkat ang salitay isang kahatulansa
bayan, sa nayot mga kaharian,at ang isang taoy katulad kabagayng
alinmang likha noong kalayaan.Ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang
salitamahigit sa hayop at malansang isda,kaya ang marapat
pagyamaning kusana tulad sa inang tunay na nagpala.Ang wikang
Tagalog tulad din sa Latin,sa Ingles, Kastila, at salitang
angel,sapagkat ang Poong maalam tuminginang siyang nag-gawad,
nagbigay sa atin.Ang salita natiy tulad din sa ibana may alfabeto
at sariling letrana kaya nawalay dinatnan ng sigwaang lunday sa
lawa noong dakong una.
Provenance
Tracing the provenance of the poem to its source, Cruz claims to
have received the poem from his friend, the poet Gabriel Beato
Francisco, who got it from a certain Saturnino Raselis of Lukban, a
bosom friend of Rizal and teacher in Majayjay, Laguna, in
1884.Raselis is alleged to have received a copy of this poem from
Rizal himself, a token of their close friendship.Unfortunately,
Raselis name does not appear in Rizals voluminous correspondence,
diaries or writings. When Jaime C. de Veyra established the
definitive canon of Rizals poetry in 1946 with a compilation
published in the series Documentos de la Biblioteca Nacional de
Filipinas (Documents from the National Library of the Philippines)
Sa Aking Mga Kabata was not published in the original Tagalog but
in a free Spanish translation of the Tagalog by Epifanio de los
Santos as A mis compaeros de niez.Tagalog, according to the
8-year-old Rizal, has its own alphabet and letters. It goes back to
pre-Spanish times. The precocious child even compared Tagalog with
Latin, English, Spanish and the language of angels, whatever that
is.
Second look
Filipinos raised on textbook history that depicts Rizal as a
superhuman genius should give the poem a second look and ask, Was
it really written by an 8-year-old from Calamba just learning to
read at his mothers knee?The poem could not have been written in
1869 when Rizal was eight based on the use of the letter k, which
was a reform in Tagalog orthography proposed by the mature Rizal.In
Rizals childhood they spelled words with a c rather than k.
Further, the word kalayaan (freedom) is used twice. First, in the
third line of the first stanza, there is mention of sanlang
kalayaan (pawned freedom).Was Rizal aware of the colonial condition
at this young age? Kalayaan appears the second time in the last
line of the second stanza.
Encounter with kalayaan
These two references ring a bell because kalayaan as we know it
today was not widely used in the 19th century. As a matter of fact,
Rizal encountered the word first in the summer of 1882 when he was
21 years old!In a letter to his brother, Paciano, dated Oct. 12,
1886, Rizal related difficulties encountered with Schillers Wilhelm
Tell that he was translating from the original German into
Tagalog:Im 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. Im aware of its many
mistakes that I entrust to you and my brothers-in-law to correct.
It is almost a literal translation. Im forgetting Tagalog a little,
as I dont speak it with anyone. I lacked many words, for example,
for the word Freiheit or liberty, one cannot use the Tagalog word
kaligtasan of course because this means that he was formerly in
some prison, slavery, etc. I encountered in the translation of Amor
Patrio the noun malay, kalayahan that Marcelo del Pilar used. In
the only Tagalog book I have, Florante [at Laura], I dont find an
equivalent noun.
El Amor Patrio
El Amor Patrio was the first article Rizal wrote on Spanish
soil. He wrote it in Barcelona in the summer of 1882 and it was
published in Diariong Tagalog in August 1882 both in Spanish and a
Tagalog translation, Pag-ibig Sa Tinubuang Lupa, by Marcelo H. del
Pilar.If, as Rizal admitted, he did not encounter the word kalayaan
until he was studying in Europe at 21 years old, how can he have
used it at 8 years old in Calamba?In light of its complicated
provenance and the anachronistic use of the word kalayaan a shadow
of doubt has been cast on Sa Aking Mga Kabata.There are only two
poems attributed to Rizal in Tagalog, the other is Kundiman. Both
are questionable. All his documented poems are in Spanish.If Rizal
did not compose Sa Aking Mga Kabata, who did?Our two suspects are
the poets Herminigildo Cruz or Gabriel Beato Francisco.Identifying
the true author of Sa Aking Mga Kabata is important because
millions of Filipino children are miseducated each year during
Buwan ng Wika when they are told that Rizal composed a poem on his
mother tongue when he was 8.Will the real author of Sa Aking Mga
Kabata please stand up for he who does not love his own poem/is
worse than a beast and a stinking fish (ang di magmahal sa sariling
tula/mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda).
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Point of View
To historian Ambeth Ocampo, also the current go-to person for
all things Rizal, state at the UP Baguio last Wednesday that he was
quite certain the line and the poem Sa Aking mga Kababata were not
written by Rizal. Ocampo cited a couple of items to support his
take.
First, said he, there is language in the poem that does not
belong in 1869, the (now) supposed year that the poem was
supposedly written. Ocampo in particular cited the word himpapawid,
used in the poem, calling it a 20th century term, langit being its
1869 version.
Second, Ocampo pointed out that there is no extant manuscript of
said poem, when other writings of Rizal either have extant
manuscripts or were once manuscripts whose existence can stand the
test of verification.
Ocampo also points out that Sa Aking mga Kababata was published
only in 1902 and cannot be traced back to Rizal, i.e., there is no
evidence that said poem was actually part of his body of work. That
said works were actually already accounted for even during Rizals
lifetime, as Ocampo points out, lends credence to the theory that
the poem was actually not written by Rizal.
(http://www.sunstar.com.ph/baguio/opinion/2011/09/17/carino-malansang-isda-179891)
XIAO CHUA Opo, alam ko pong masakit tanggapin ngunit ilang
dekada pong naniwala sa kasinungalingan ang mga kabataan sa bagay
na iyan. Maging ako po nasaktan. Biruin mo, 12 years na akong
nagaaral, sa 12 years na yun, since Prep ang alam ko si Rizal ang
nagsulat ng Tulang iyan. Hardcore! [term courtesy of Prof. Xiao
Chua]
So eto na nga, may mga bagay akong babanggitin at pilit kong
ipapaliwanag sa abot ng makakaya ng neuron(s) ko.
Una, dapat muna nating isipin na ang Sa Aking mga Kabata ay
lumabas sa Madla sa isang libro ng isang manunulat na Pilipino
matapos ang ilang mga taon buhat ng pumanaw si Rizal. WALA po sa
anumang dokumento ang DIREKTANG nakaugnay sa pangalan ni Jose
Rizal- Walang manuscript. Gayundin, sa hinaba-haba ng buhay ni Jose
Rizal hindi po nya ito naipublish
(Private Message from Mr. Xiao Chua consultant of HISTORY:
TSISMIS NOON, KASAYSAYAN NGAYON TV5)at hindi nya po ito nabanggit
sa kahit sinumang kaibigan, kamaganak at hindi manlang itolumabas
sa kahit anong diary and correspondence nya.
Pangalawa, sa kanlungan lamang ng kanyang ina sya natuto magbasa
at magsulat. at sa edad na 8 y/o di umano nya ito isinulat. Sa edad
na ito, kahina-hinala na alam na nya ang mga konsepto ng
pagkakagapos o kolonyalismo (nabanggit nya ang kalayaan).
Pangatlo, wala pang salitang KALAYAAN noong 19th Century sa
Pilipinas. Ni-hindi rin alam ni Rizal ang salitang KALAYAAN. Ito
lamang ay nalaman nya noong sya ay nagaaral na sa Europa. Sa
katunayan, sa isang sulat nya sa kanyang kapatid na si Paciano,
nabanggit nya na ang librong (Wilhem Tell ni Schiller) kanyang
isinasalin sa wikang tagalog ay hindi nya lubusang maperpekto.
Sinabi pa nya na literal translation ang ginawa nya. Ang salitang
LIBERTY ay isinalin nya sa tagalog na salitang LIGTAS.
Pangapat, ang paggamit sa letrang K ay hindi prominente sa
panahong yaon. Sa unang publikasyon nito (orihinal na kopya) ang
lahat ng pagbabay-bay ay naaayon na sa revised Filipino
language.
(http://edito-real.tumblr.com/post/38590510401/sa-aking-mga-kabata-not-rizals)