Rizal Poems

Education Gives Luster To The Motherland

Wise education, vital breath

Inspires an enchanting virtue;

She puts the Country in the lofty seat

Of endless glory, of dazzling glow,

And just as the gentle aura's puff

Do brighten the perfumed flower's hue:

So education with a wise, guiding hand,

A benefactress, exalts the human band.

Man's placid repose and earthly life

To education he dedicates

Because of her, art and science are born

Man; and as from the high mount above

The pure rivulet flows, undulates,

So education beyond measure

Gives the Country tranquility secure.

Where wise education raises a throne

Sprightly youth are invigorated,

Who with firm stand error they subdue

And with noble ideas are exalted;

It breaks immortality's neck,

Contemptible crime before it is halted:

It humbles barbarous nations

And it makes of savages champions.

And like the spring that nourishes

The plants, the bushes of the meads,

She goes on spilling her placid wealth,

And with kind eagerness she constantly feeds,

The river banks through which she slips,

And to beautiful nature all she concedes,

So whoever procures education wise

Until the height of honor may rise.

From her lips the waters crystalline

Gush forth without end, of divine virtue,

And prudent doctrines of her faith

The forces weak of evil subdue,

That break apart like the whitish waves

That lash upon the motionless shoreline:

And to climb the heavenly ways the people

Do learn with her noble example.

In the wretched human beings' breast

The living flame of good she lights

The hands of criminal fierce she ties,

And fill the faithful hearts with delights,

Which seeks her secrets beneficient

And in the love for the good her breast she incites,

And it's th' education noble and pure

Of human life the balsam sure.

And like a rock that rises with pride

In the middle of the turbulent waves

When hurricane and fierce Notus roar

She disregards their fury and raves,

That...