Rizal’s letters, oblique micro-translations of epistolary small-talk, poetic collage, gentle chaos distilled, quotidian and mundane.
[Manila] July 2, 1876. “The beaded slippers you posted have arrived, my name sewn into them. Today, I draw. I believed myself to be drawing in gouache, that is to say with colors, but I have fooled myself.”
[Sta. Cruz, Manila] November 27, 1878. “For a month and a half, I have been learning solfège, piano, and singing. If you heard me, you’d imagine yourself in Spain because, my dear and never forgotten friend, I bray like a donkey.”
[Heidelberg] February 9, 1886. “They invited me to drink beer, but conversation was difficult. I was not used to speaking or listening in German. And they hardly knew any French. We resorted to Latin and in this language understood each other for part of the night.”
[Heidelberg] February 9, 1886. “The German lifestyle is not unpleasant, just full of potatoes. With anything, potatoes: morning and night. In the evening one takes tea with potatoes and cold meat.”
[Heidelberg] March 26, 1886. “I open the windows; after the ice and snow and fog it makes me want to sing.”
[Berlin] December 30, 1886. “I am sending you a small gift, a snuff box. Do not smile when you receive it, for the item is insignificant and I give it to you with the best of intentions.”
[Berlin] January 26, 1887. “I cannot grasp the agony you feel, not being able to smoke, since I am no smoker, but I imagine it is like not being able to drink water– which is a passion of mine.”
March 5, 1887. “Mon cher ami: you are correct. Forgetfulness is the death of friendship. But I say that in true friendship, oblivion does not exist. I will prove it. You’ve long desired to read a book written by me. Well then, in answer to your three letters: a novel.”
[Vienna] May 24, 1887. “We remember: her little blue eyes, her cheerful laugh, her diminutive teeth. She ran after the train as we left.”
[Tokyo] April 7, 1888. “Camellias redden garden foliage. The plum and cherry trees: white tinted, vaporous pink on a landscape shaded by cedar and pine. On the thirteenth, I leave for America by steamer.”
[London] June 12, 1888. “A bowl of turtle soup here costs over five pesetas. Enclosed: young Elefaño’s glass eyes. They are English eyes since I’ve not yet gone to France. Later, I will send him French eyes.”
[London] June 27, 1888. “Many do not want to burn ants because they say ants multiply more that way. So why not be ants?”
[London] July 27, 1888. “On the steamship, the boy asked me if I knew “Richal,” the author of Noli Me Tángere. I smiled and said yes, I know him. He is like the exiled Prince Aladín in the story of Florante and Laura.”
[London] August 7, 1888. “…but enough of that. I want to send you some cigarettes, more or less twenty of them. You know I don’t smoke. Can I mail them? And the customs duty? I have more than a hundred here, beautifully decorated with flowers and letters.”
[London] Nov. 8, 1888. “We do not lack books and there is a great desire to learn. Families send their children to Manila for schooling, knowing that the luck of the Ilustrado is to have enemies, to the point of being executed in Bagumbayan.”
[Paris] May 20, 1889. “Exposition entrance fee: 0.75 francs. When will you come? I promise breakfast to five friends over the course of a week: chocolate or tea and biscuits. Tell Pañganiban I am pleased with his determination to study German.”
[Brussels] March 5, 1890. “No book, nor any historian I know, speaks of any plant in my country with a use similar to that of hashish. I myself —in the year 1879— have tried it (for the experience). The language holds no similar name. ‘Isis’ is a species of wild fig tree.”
[Brussels] March 31, 1890. “My brother: the house of our friend Pilar was burned down. Priest’s order, they believe. Whether or not the priest was the author of this crime, I cannot say. But…imagine it.”
[Brussels] July 5, 1890. “In the photograph you do not appear as you, truly; at first glance one would think you didn’t possess a kind heart. The glasses are at fault. But still. After closer observation —right away— there you are.”
[Dapitan] December 20, 1893. “Young gentleman: a little error in your last letter, a little error which many commit. That is: you must place last. Say: Emilio and I; You and I. To live is to be among men. That is, to fight—but with what is yours. It will last forever. Smile.”
[Dapitan] 1894. “I see you’ve taken well to letter writing, and so I return yours with slight corrections. Do not be offended; they are from your uncle who has edited the writings of people older, with more years of schooling than yourself. Be studious, my little niece. Be kind.”
[Dapitan] September 25, 1895. “A large iguana attacked the chickens under the house during siesta. Joe killed it. Hunted a deer from the uplands but lost sight of the creature. They found the bones afterwards. August is the most suitable month to brood chickens.”
Jen Mutia Eusebio 