My Last Farewell
Farewell, dear Fatherland, clime of the sun caress'd,
Pearl of the Orient seas, our Eden lost!
Gladly now I go to give thee this faded life's best, And when the dark night wraps the graveyard around,
And were it brighter, fresher, or more blest, With only the dead in their vigil to see;
Still would I give it thee, nor count the cost. Break not my repose or the mystery profound,
And perchance thou mayst hear a sad hymn resound;
On the field of battle, 'mid the frenzy of fight, 'Tis I, O my country, raising a song unto thee.
Others have given their lives, without doubt or heed;
The place matters not--cypress or laurel or lily white,
Scaffold of open plain, combat or martyrdom's plight, When even my grave is remembered no more,
'Tis ever the same, to serve our home and country's Unmark'd by never a cross nor a stone;
need. Let the plow sweep through it, the spade turn it o'er,
That my ashes may carpet thy earthly floor,
I die just when I see the dawn break, Before into nothingness at last they are blown.
Through the gloom of night, to herald the day;
And if color is lacking my blood thou shalt take, Then will oblivion bring to me no care,
Pour'd out at need for thy dear sake, As over thy vales and plains I sweep;
To dye with its crimson the waking ray. Throbbing and cleansed in thy space and air,
With color and light, with song and lament I fare,
My dreams, when life first opened to me, Ever repeating the faith that I keep.
My dreams, when the hopes of youth beat high,
Were to see thy lov'd face, O gem of the Orient sea, My Fatherland ador'd, that sadness to my sorrow
From gloom and grief, from care and sorrow free; lends,
No blush on thy brow, no tear in thine eye Beloved Filipinas, hear now my last good-by!
I give thee all: parents and kindred and friends;
Dream of my life, my living and burning desire, For I go where no slave before the oppressor bends,
All hail! cries the soul that is now to take flight; Where faith can never kill, and God reigns e'er on
All hail! And sweet it is for thee to expire; high!
To die for thy sake, that thou mayst aspire;
And sleep in thy bosom eternity's long night. Farewell to you all, from my soul torn away,
Friends of my childhood in the home dispossessed!
If over my grave some day thou seest grow, Give thanks that I rest from the wearisome day!
In the grassy sod, a humble flower, Farewell to thee, too, sweet friend that lightened my
Draw it to thy lips and kiss my soul so, way;
While I may feel on my brow in the cold tomb below Beloved creatures all, farewell! In death there is rest!
The touch of thy tenderness, thy breath's warm
power.
Let the moon beam over me soft and serene,
Let the dawn shed over me its radiant flashes,
Let the wind with sad lament over me keen; Billones
And if on my cross a bird should be seen,
Let it trill there its hymn of peace to my ashes.
Let the sun draw the vapors up to the sky,
And heavenward in purity bear my tardy protest;
Let some kind soul o'er my untimely fate sigh,
And in the still evening a prayer be lifted on high
From thee, O my country, that in God I may rest.
Pray for all those that hapless have died,
For all who have suffered the unmeasur'd pain;
For our mothers that bitterly their woes have cried,
For widows and orphans, for captives by torture tried;
And then for thyself that redemption thou mayst gain.
