Yryrytsyu4

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To the Philippines
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Rizal wrote the original sonnet in Spanish
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Aglowing and fair like a houri on high,
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Full of grace and pure like the Morn that peeps
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When in the sky the clouds are tinted blue,
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Of th' Indian land, a goddess sleeps.
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The light foam of the son'rous sea
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Doth kiss her feet with loving desire;
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The cultured West adores her smile
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And the frosty Pole her flow'red attire.
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With tenderness, stammering, my Muse
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To her 'midst undines and naiads does sing;
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I offer her my fortune and bliss:
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Oh, artists! her brow chaste ring
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With myrtle green and roses red
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And lilies, and extol the Philippines!

Our Mother Tongue
A poem originally in Tagalog written by Rizal when he was only eight years old
IF truly a people dearly love
The tongue to them by Heaven sent,
They'll surely yearn for liberty
Like a bird above in the firmament.
BECAUSE by its language one can judge
A town, a barrio, and kingdom;
And like any other created thing
Every human being loves his freedom.
ONE who doesn't love his native tongue,
Is worse than putrid fish and beast;
AND like a truly precious thing
It therefore deserves to be cherished.
THE Tagalog language's akin to Latin,
To English, Spanish, angelical tongue;
For God who knows how to look after us
This language He bestowed us upon.
AS others, our language is the same
With alphabet and letters of its own,
It was lost because a storm did destroy
On the lake the bangka 1 in years bygone