Rizal-Blumentritt Correspondence How it Started 110 Years ago 50 Selected Letters between Rizal and Blumentritt © Courtesy of National Historical Institute, Manila 1. Rizal, Heidelberg, 31 July 1886 Rizal compliments Blumentritt with a copy of Rufino Baltazar Hernández, Aritmética, written in Tagalog and Spanish. 11 Obere Neckar Strasse Heidelberg, 31 July 1886 Esteemed Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt Esteemed Sir, Having heard that Your Lordship is studying our language and that you have already published some works on the subject, I take the liberty of sending you a valuable book(1) written in that language by a countryman of mine. The Spanish version is mediocre because the author is only a modest writer, but the Tagalog portion is good and this is precisely the language spoken in our province. I am Very respectfully yours, J. Rizal 2. Rizal, Leipzig, 16 August 1886 Gift of two books from Blumentritt - At his service in regard to Tagalog- His knowledge can be of use to him as much as the grammars of the friars - He could send Blumen- tritt works of more value than those published by Spanish travelers - "He who does not know his own language. ." 40, II, Albertstrasse Leipzig, 16 August 1886 Very esteemed Sir, I received your letter together with the two books that I value very much. I read them with great pleasure and satis- faction. I appreciate your kindness and I shall not forget your courtesy in accepting my insignificant gift. V could not answer you at once because I made a trip on the Rhine and I arrived at Leipzig only yesterday. I am at your service for everything concerning our language which I have studied since my early youth. My knowledge of it is not great but at least it may be useful to you as much as the grammars written by those ignorant friars. I could send you other works if I were at home. The friars do not know either foreign writers or those of their own nationality. One page alone of those books is worth more than all the Spanish travelers and the friars have written or will still write. He who does not know well his mother tongue will know much less others that he has not studied carefully. Their knowledge of Tagalog is like my knowledge of German. The traveling chroniclers remain only a short time in the Philippines and they spend this brief time among Spaniards. The majority of the friars never studied grammar and they talk only with uneducated Filipinos. For this reason these writers know as much Tagalog as I did of German six months after my arrival in Germany, and I don't dare write poetry or deliver sermons in German. For that same reason I hope you will pardon the errors of my "kitchen German ". Pardon the delay of my reply. Yours very cordially, Jose Rizal 3. Rizal, Leipzig, 22 August l886 Tagalog vocabulary by Blumentritt - Rizal wants to meet Kern - And to buy books in Vienna - He will study Dutch "because the Dutch have written much about us" - The friars.- Worldly and heavenly riches - "For our estates they would give us heavenly ones." - If Blumentritt could study life in our vil- lages - Christianity is more grand and sublime in Europe. Catholicism is more beautiful than Protestantism. Leipzig, 22 August 1886 My dear Sir, I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter as well as your new work(1) and I regret that I have nothing at hand to send you in return. I hope that this new work would be like all those that you have written with diligence, attention, care, and ability. I have already read your two vocabularies and I am astonished that you have taken so much trouble in studying a language like Tagalog which is so difliicult. You cannot be blamed for the little errors in them, for many times the people themselves commit them, as well as my learned and talented friend Dr. T. P. de Tavera(2) who has excelled himself in his exposition and has given me a pleasant surprise. I will lend you his works for a week, because I myself need them very greatly. Perhaps my annotations may be of some use to you. I like to read your book at once so that I am in a hurry to finish this letter. Pardon the many errors due to the haste with which I am writing it. By telling me about universities and professors you have awakened my eagerness. I should like to follow all that you advise me to do. I should like to meet Dr. Kerns in Leyden. I should like to go to Vienna and buy me a whole library; but I must have patience because I have neither time nor opportunity for it. I do not know Professor Gabelentz. Now we are on vacation and I cannot stay a long time at Leipzig. I will study Dutch also, because the Dutch are our neighbors and they have written much about us. I agree with your method of learning languages. Tomorrow I am going to look for the works of Waitz-Gerland at the municipal library. If I am able to translate them, I will do so and I am going to send you a transcription so that you may see it and correct it. I am also engaged in other studies at this moment. If I don't get sick during these months, I will surely go to Dresden, though for nothing more than shaking the and of a man as worthy and gentlemanly as you are. I will leave about September or October for that city. I am planning to get to Berlin towards the end of October and stay there for two or three months. Naturally I will then visit Professors Virchow and Jagor, if I can get from you letters of recommendation to them. I will not forget your admonition concerning religion. I admit that the friars have done much good, or at least they wanted to do so. But allow me to remark that they are very well recompensed for their services, firstly, because they receive worldly riches and afterwards heavenly ones also; and because in truth they exchanged heavenly riches for the lands of our forefathers, however much earthly life . may not be exactly Christian life and nevertheless we have to live like other men. Dear Sir: You know our country through the books written by the friars and Spaniards who copied one another. If you had grown up in our villages as I had and had seen the sufferings of our country folk, you would have a very different idea of Catholicism in the Philippines. I have had an opportunity to study the religions in Europe. There I found Christianity beautiful, sublime, divine; Catholicism attractive, poetic, the same Christianity, poetized and beautified, more beautiful than the insipid Protestantism. Our country folk do not know these differences. Pardon my frankness which may perhaps seem to you strange for not having heard such a thing before. Perhaps you remember Lessing's fable about the boy and the serpent. Each one writes his history according to his convenience. Very sincerely yours, José Rizal 4. Rizal, Leipzig, 2 October l886 Tagalog version of Schiller's drama - Works of Meyer in Bibliotheca Philippina - "Everything referring to my native country interests me greatly." - On the Igorrotes of Dr. Hans Meyer - In order to learn the secret of German verbs - "To sit once at your table is enough honor for me." Leipzig, 2 October 1886 My dear Sir, I beg you to pardon me for not having answered on time your letter, which for me is as kind as all the rest; but I was and am still very busy with an urgent work which my compatriots have entrusted to me. They have asked me for Tagalog versions of the works of Schiller. You can easily imagine how difficult this kind of work is for me, especially knowing as you do the peculiarities of our language whose mode of speech is so different from the German. I have to understand and study first each phrase and then look for the corresponding Tagalog expression, avoiding carefully circumlocutions and Germanisms. However, I am consoled by the thought that I shall have the honor of interpreting the great Schiller in Tagalog to the Filipinos. I hope likewise to be able to go to Dresden towards the end of the present month. Dr. A. B. Meier(1), privy councilor, has excited my curiosity very much with his works which you mention in your Bibliotheca Philippina. Everything referring to my native country interests me greatly. Recently, the amiable Dr. Hans Meier complimented me with a copy of his book dealing with the Igorots. We also spoke about you. I should like to stay one more year in Germany (also in Austria) because my German is still defective and I have not yet understood the secret of the difficult German verbs. Those that end with the syllables ver, er, an, be, etc. are used frequently and they seem to me very strange. So I believe I shall spend fourteen days of next spring in Leitmeritz. According to the map, the p ace seems to be near the mountains, which gladdens me, for thus I can also study Bohemian life there. I thank you in advance for your invitation and I should like to return your kind hospitality some day in the Philippines. In case I spend there the coming year, I cannot accept your kind offer of lodging in your house.