TO THE FLOWERS OF

HEIDELBERG
(A Las Flores de Heidelberg)

Heidelberg, Germany
A city in Baden-Wurttember in South-West Germany, famous for
its ancient universities, romantic surroundings, old churches,
majestic castles, and cobblestone streets redolent of a bygone
era.
February 7, 1886 - Rizal arrived in Heidelberg, after he studied
medicine in Spain.

While in Heidelberg
Rizal studied the German language and he also found out the Germans love
for potatoes.
Attended lectures about ophthamology as an observer under Dr. Otto
Becker and Professor Wilhelm Kuehne at Alte Unibersidad.
Had the privilege to work in the Augen Klinik (Eye Clinic) of a noted Polish
ophthalmologist, Dr. Javier Galezowksy and German ophthalmologist, Dr.
Otto Becker. He learned practical operations on eye diseases.
Astounded with the flowers along the Neckar River, especially the Cadena
de Amor, he composed the poem, A las Flores de Heidelberg, on April
22,1886.

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

While
working
as
an
ophthalmologist in Heidelberg,
he took regular morning walks by
the river. One day, while
observing the beauty of the
flowers, and missing his country,
he made a wish through this
poem that the flowers would
send his sentiments of love on
the breeze to the Philippines.

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

Those flowers Forget me
not flower reminded
him of the flowers in
their homes garden in
Calamba because of his
mood of homesickness

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

The poem 'To the Flowers
of Heidelberg' reflects
Rizal's appreciation for
the
German
city,
Heidelberg, as well as the
homesickness he feels for
where is from, the
Philippines..

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

This poem has no deeper
meaning
It was just a poem that
anyone could also make
in times of boredom

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

(A Las Flores de Heidelberg)
English translation by Nick Joaquin

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

Go to my country, go, O foreign
flowers,
sown by the traveler along the
road,
and under that blue heaven
that watches over my loved ones,
recount the devotion
the pilgrim nurses for his native
sod!

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

Go and say, say that when dawn
opened your chalices for the first
time
beside the icy Neckar,
you saw him silent beside you,
thinking of her constant vernal
clime.

Meaning: Even on the early dawn when Filipinos do their own activities,
he constantly thinks of his country and its fellowmen

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

Say that when dawn
which steals your aroma
was whispering playful love
songs to your young
sweet petals, he, too,
murmured
canticles of love in his native
tongue;

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

That in the morning when the sun
first traces
the topmost peak of Koenigssthul
in gold
and with a mild warmth raises
to life again the valley, the glade,
the forest,
he hails that sun, still in its
dawning,
that in his country in full zenith
blazes.

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

And tell of that day

when he collected you along the way
among the ruins of a feudal castle,
on the banks of the Neckar, or in a
forest nook.
Recount the words he said
as, with great care,
between the pages of a worn-out
book
he pressed the flexible petals that he
took.

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

Carry, carry, O flowers,

my love to my loved ones,
peace to my country and its fecund
loam,
faith to its men and virtue to its
women,
health to the gracious beings
that dwell within the sacred paternal
home.

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

When you reach that shore,

deposit the kiss I gave you
on the wings of the wind above
that with the wind it may rove
and I may kiss all that I worship,
honor and love!

Meaning: He poetically describes his will that his kisses on

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

But O you will arrive there,

flowers,
and you will keep perhaps your
vivid hues;
but far from your native heroic
earth
to which you owe your life and
worth,
your fragrances you will lose!

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

Flowers of Heidelberg: symbol of
his love for his motherland
Beauty of the
flower=motherland/country
Futility of the flower

Flowers of Heidelberg
Symbolizes 2 realities:
1. Flowers beauty symbolizes Rizals love for his country
2. Flowers reduced quality refers to Rizals useless presence in
another country
.Rizal is longing for his country
.Compares a person far from his homeland to a flower losing its
fragrance