TO MS. C.O. Y. R
Interpreted By:
Rod Jasper A. Gacayan and Josef Joshua Valdez
This poem was dedicated to Consuelo Ortiga y Rey, the daughter of
Don Pablo Ortiga y Rey, a former Mayor of Manila.
The hero probably fell in love with her and the lady apparently asked
him for romantic verses: instead he gave her this discordant and stark
poem.
Who: Dedicated to Consuelo Ortiga y Rey
Where: Madrid, Manila
When: Time of Rizal; Before Leonor Rivera
What: A Poem
Why: Rizal fell in love with Consuelo
Why ask for those unintellectual
The man refused to make
verses that once, insane with grief,
romantic verses that was once
I sang aghast?
rejected and unappreciated
Or are you maybe throwing in my
and it makes him bitter
face my rank ingratitude, my bitter
only if reminded of such.
past?
Why resurrect unhappy memories
The man tries to tell the
now when the heart awaits from love
lady that there’s no need
a sign
to talk about of his past, and
Or call the night when the day begins
that he is ready to love
to smile, not knowing if another day
again and that, if she will
will shine?
accept his love to her.
You wish to learn the cause of this
The lady wants to know
despair that anguish wove?
why he is in such pain,
You wish to know the wherefore of
the fact he may find
such sorrows, and why, a young soul,
another love again.
I sing not of love?
Oh, may you never why! For the reason
brings melancholy but may set you
The man refused to reveal
laughing. Down with the corpse into the
how he suffered from his
grave shall go another corpse that’s buried
past that she might only laugh
in my stuffing! Something impossible,
at him but instead she has
ambition, madness, dreams of soul, a
passion and its throes…
Oh, drink the nectar that life has to offer
and let bitter dregs in peace repose!
to look into the love he is
offering to her.
Again I feel the impenetrable
This time again, the man
shadows shrouding the soul with
feels like he would be rejected
the thick veils of night: a mere bud
or the lady will not response
only, not a lovely flower, because it’s
to his lover offering.
destitute of air and light…
Behold them: my poor verses, my
The chance of man relies on
damned brood – and sorrow suckled
the verses he made for
each and every brat!
the lady, expecting she would
Oh, they know well to what they owe
answer to his love offering.
their being, and maybe they
themselves will tell you what.
INTERPRETATION AS A WHOLE
The man rejects to make romantic verses asked by the lady that was
once unappreciated and unwanted. The man also tries to tell the lady
the lady that he is ready to love again in spite of his suffering from
the past that involves Leonor Rivera. The chance of the man depends
from his romantic verses, hoping that the lady would answer his love
offering.