TO THE FLOWERS OF 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.

(Rizal in this paragraph poetically requests the flowers of Heidelberg to speak of him in the Philippines)

Go and say.... Say that when the dawn
First brew your calyx open there
Beside the River Necker 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 Koenigsthul in early morn first spies,
And with its tepid light
Is pouring life in valley, wood, and grove,
He greets the sun as it begins to rise,
Which in his native land is blazing straight above.

(These three paragraphs mentions the times of day starting from dawn and the break of sunlight. He beautifully asked the flowers to bear witness to his undying concern for his motherland when at dawn he sings to the flowers native songs in exchange of their gift of natural perfume. And in the morning under the soft light of the early sun he reflects still of his motherland where the same sun now is at its highest... as if he is connected with his motherland through the sun)

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 sylvan shade,

Tell them what he told you
As tenderly he took
Your pliant leaves and pressed them in a book,
Where now its well-worn pages close enfold you.

(Rizal poetically describes his plan for the flowers to carry his message to his motherland. He plucks them and preserves them in his book)

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.

(His first message to the country is peace, virtue to women, courage to men)

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.

(He poetically describes his will that his kisses on the flower may be carried by the wind to his loved ones)

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.

(Here is the paradox: Rizal used the flowers of Heidelberg as his symbol of his love for his motherland. The beauty of the flowers is comparable to the way he looks at our country that anyone who will see the flower may get in touch with Rizal's concern for his motherland. Though noble this may seem to be, Rizal in the last stanza reflected on its utter futility since the flower will no longer be the same when it reaches the country. Its beauty and perfume, which should reflect Rizal's intentions for the country, will long be gone. Why? For it is far from its fatherland.)

Rizal wrote this when he was at Germany. In France and Germany, Rizal was well known and respected. But he may have realized what good will their respect do to his country. What good will this do to the Philippines if he is serving foreign lands and not his own. His verses had a single symbol--The flowers of Heidelberg. But it symbolizes two realities. First, the flowers' beauty symbolizes Rizal's love for his country, and second, the flowers' reduced quality refers to Rizal's useless presence in another country. Later he decided to return to the country despite repeated warning from his friends and relatives.