The remarks about the rebellion are from a photographic copy
of the pencil notes used by Rizal for his brief speech. The
manuscript is now in the possession of Sr. Eduardo Lete, of
Saragossa, Spain.
I had no notice at all of what was being planned until the first or
second of July, in 1896, when Pio Valenzuela came to see me, saying
that an uprising was being arranged. I told him that it was absurd,
etc., etc. and he answered me that they could bear no more. I advised
him that they should have patience, etc., etc. He added then that
he had been sent because they had compassion of my life and that
probably it would compromise me. I replied that they should have
patience and that if anything happened to me I would then prove my
innocence. "Besides, said I, don't consider me but our country which
is the one that will suffer." I went on to show how absurd was the
movement.--This later Pio Valenzuela testified.--He did not tell me
that my name was being used, neither did he suggest that I was its
chief, nor anything of that sort.
Those who testify that I am the chief (which I do not know nor do I
know of having ever treated with them), what proofs do they present of
my having accepted this chiefship or that I was in relations with them
or with their society? Either they have made use of my name for their
own purposes or they have been deceived by others who have. Where is
the chief who dictates no order nor makes any arrangement, who is not
consulted in any way about so important an enterprise until the last
moment, and then, when he decides against it, is disobeyed? Since the
seventh of July of 1892 I have entirely ceased political activity. It
seems some have wished to avail themselves of my name for their
own ends.
A plant I am, that scarcely grown,
Was torn from out its Eastern bed,
Where all around perfume is shed,
And life but as a dream is known;
The land that I can call my own,
By me forgotten ne'er to be,
Where trilling birds their song taught me,
And cascades with their ceaseless roar,
And all along the spreading shore
The murmurs of the sounding sea.
While yet in childhood's happy day,
I learned upon its sun to smile,
And in my breast there seemed the while
Seething volcanic fires to play;
A bard I was, and my wish alway
To call upon the fleeting wind,
With all the force of verse and mind:
"Go forth, and spread around its fame,
From zone to zone with glad acclaim,
And earth to heaven together bind!"
From "Mi Piden Versos" (1882),
verses from Madrid for his mother.
One by one they have passed on,
All I loved and moved among;
Dead or married--from me gone,
For all I place my heart upon
By fate adverse are stung.
Go thou too, O Muse, depart;
Other regions fairer find;
For my land but offers art
For the laurel, chains that bind,
For a temple, prisons blind.
But before thou leavest me, speak;
Tell me with thy voice sublime,
Thou couldst ever from me seek
A song of sorrow for the weak,
Defiance to the tyrant's crime.
From "A Mi Musa" (1884),
requested by a young lady of Madrid.