Jumarie Quinones BSN 12-E 06-24-2020

Our Mother Tongue

By: Dr. Jose Rizal

Since a formalistic approach is more concerning the structure than the meaning of the
words, the first thing I can say is that it is amazing how it still translates and manages to
rhyme in another language.
You can also see that the writer very much loves is language and takes a great deal of
pride in the language of his country. He refers to it as heaven sent early in the poem
and discusses angelical tongue later in the poem. He also is disgusted by someone who
doesn’t love his native language and says they are like a beast or rotten fish so really he
is very proud of his heritage and the language.
The degree of comparison that Rizal used was very strong that awakened Filipinos to
love our own language. We should learn to love our own language before we entertain
other languages. It is a good thing that we learn different languages, but we must not
forget our own.
The poem above has formatting of capitalized first word which is used to show that it is
meant to be read as a poem.
If it is truly written by 8 years old Rizal, it’s unimaginable to me to think how much
smarter he was than even many young adults today.

Mi Primera Inspiration
By: Dr. Jose Rizal
It seems the first and 4th lines of most sections of the poem rhyme so it’s amazing it’s
translated from Spanish and would still work perfectly.
This poem was written with 4 line stanza called a quatrain. The poem flows very nice
and makes the reader feel happy about a happy spring day with nature and birds, music
and flowers. I say spring because I notice it’s mentioned in several different paragraphs
since the beginning of the poem.
This poem of Rizal has said to be dedicated for her mother as he was his inspiration.
On the first stanza he felt the smell of a sweet aroma of flowers as if in a festive day, I
imagined that he is visualizing a huge garden where he can smell the scents of flowers
just like what we saw in movies.
The second stanza shifted to the musical background as he referred to choir of
nightingales, a musical sound of the birds singing. The third stanza is where he can
hear the sound of the wind blended with the musical sound of birds while he can hear
Jumarie Quinones BSN 12-E 06-24-2020

the sound of water as it flows on the fourth stanza. The fifth stanza shows his great
feeling on that particular day that he felt that all is in harmony as being described on the
next stanza. The seventh stanza for me is where he felt a wonderful feeling of
happiness and the last stanza shows a great affection of love to whomever the poem
was all about. The overall poem for me is like in a movie scene where the person was
inspired and in love that he felt a sensation of peace and harmony. A great feeling of
happiness coordinating with nature, the sweet aroma of flowers, the sound of the birds
singing the drop of water flowing, where everything seems to be perfect. The poem is
about the feeling of being inspired and in love.

Sa Aking Mga Kabata

By: Dr. Jose Rizal
This poem is very similar with the first poem above, Our Mother Tongue. Initially, one
could think it’s another translation that was made. It has the same meaning of how
important our language (or of course languages) are to us as a Filipino people, because
it’s one of the things which makes our country great and unique.
The words are so strong and the message is so powerful, I feel like it would be amazing
if it is really 7 year old Rizal but honestly any Filipino even who did this is highly
intelligent and patriotic. Imagine today even teenagers with their YouTube and Tiktok
but even me, I could not write so beautifully and elegant.
It does get the point across very well. How important is our identity as a Filipino and
how we should preserve those things.