They Asked Me for Verses - Page 2 of 2

by Dr. José Rizal

(English version of “Me Piden Versos”)

While yet I was merely a child
I knew how to smile at your sun,
And inside my breast had begun,
Like volcanic fires to burn wild,
The desire that the verses complied
By a poet's keen vigorous mind,
Might cry to the swift moving wind;
Speed away, and sing to proclaim
To the furthermost zones, of Her fame.
In earth and in heaven enshrined!

I left Her, my Motherland home,
A tree stripped of leaves and turned dry.
Now gone are the carols that I
Once sang, e'er I started to roam
And churned the vast ocean's white foam,
To escape from my dread destiny:
Too foolish as yet to foresee
That instead of the good which I sought,
I should plow from the ocean waves naught
But a specter of death haunting me.

For all of my dream laden hours,
Love, eagerness, castles in air,
Beneath the blue skies I left there
In that faraway region of flowers.
Ah, do not appeal to my powers
To sing about love, for, like lead,
My heart is weighed down, and in dread
I roam through this waste without peace;
The pangs in my soul never cease,
And all inspiration is dead.

Learn this Filipino word:

katápikang-balikat