There’s forever in the works of Balagtas, Rizal, and Corazon de Jesus

By Dr. Pablo S. Trillana III

Literature expresses through words the splendor and pathos of living and dying. By recreating our world, it gives freedom. By possessing power over time, it grants immortality. Balagtas, Rizal, and Corazon de Jesus embody that mystique. And it is good, in this month of hearts, to chant their songs of love.

The lives of Balagtas (1788-1862), Rizal (1861-1896), and Corazon de Jesus (1894-1932) were rivers of native consciousness flowing through the streambeds of literary works that fostered love, both of one’s beloved and of one’s country. In the times of Balagtas, two juxtaposing sentiments began to ripple in people’s consciousness—the injustice felt by the indios (native population) and the increasing discrimination felt by the creoles (Philippine Spaniards). Though of pure Spanish parentage, the creoles were born and bred in the country and pejoratively called Filipinos Españoles (or insulares). The more powerful, ruling Spaniards born in Spain and called hijos de pais (sons of the country or peninsulares) looked down upon both groups.

Two crucial events—one in 1822 involving the indios and the other in 1823 involving the creoles—brought their sentiments into a beginning fusion of proto-nationalist murmurs. On Christmas Eve in1822, the indios posted political placards on the bridge sidings and walls of Manila against the peninsular Spaniards. The following year, the creole officer corps of the Manila garrison led by Andres Novales, with support from the creole businessmen, revolted and took control of Intramuros for close to 24 hours. Reprisals and death followed. The hearts of the indio and the creole blended, giving “spirit and substance” to a coalescing collective consciousness that stoked love of country and highlighted a common cause against the oppressive peninsular Spaniards. 

Florante at Laura

Balagtas was active in the indio-political movements of the 1820s-1830s. The native population felt they were suffering but could not understand why. So Balagtas wrote Florante at Laura, not only to“amuse and entertain” (his overt purpose) but also to educate (quietly because he did not forget the lessons of 1822-1823). Taking elements from the popular comedias (versified comedies) and metrical romances of the period and embellishing them with references to Greco-Roman classics and Mediterranean history and literature, which he knew, Balagtas created the seductive force of Florante at Laura to make Filipinos recognize the perversion around them and its cause. The story itself is a simple double-triangle tale of love, betrayal, and redemption set in the forests of the imagined country called Albanya. The first love triangle spotlighted the Christian lovers Florante and Laura and the throne usurper Adolfo who wanted Laura for himself. The second love triangle focused on the Moorish lovers Alladin and Flerida, the former betrayed by his own father Sultan Ali Adab of Persia in order to force his own union with Flerida.

The action was also simple. Florante was freed by Alladin from the hungry lions and Adolfo was killed by the arrows of Flerida to save Laura from rape—no supernatural machinations, no epic battles. The compelling beauty was its poetry. Its compelling message was simplicity—the imagined characters were masks. Balagtas himself was speaking. To mirror the virulence in the country, Balagtas spoke with enduring relevance: “Sa loob at labas ng bayan kong sawi, kaliluha’y siyang nangyayaring hari, kagalinga’t bait ay nalulugami, ininis sa hukay ng dusa’t pighati.”

And as the hungry lions approached, Balagtas made Florante intone a heart-rending valedictory of deep love for country and for the beloved Laura. Believing that Laura had betrayed him, his thoughts were still of love. “Paalam, Albanyang pinamamayanan ng kasamaa’t lupit, bangis, kaliluhan, akong tanggulan mo’y kusa mang pinatay, sa iyo’y malaki ang panghihinayang……..Sa abang aba ko! Diyata, O Laura, mamamatay akong hindi mo na sinta, ito ang mapait sa lahat ng dusa; sa akin ay sinong magaalaala?” And in the most pulsating expression of love, Balagtas through Alladin claimed immortal resonance: “O pagsintang labis ng kapangyarihan, sampung magaamay iyong nasasaklaw! Pag ikaw ang nasok sa puso ninuman hahamaking lahat masunod ka lamang.”

The lives of Francisco Balagtas, Jose Rizal, and Corazon de Jesus were rivers of native consciousness flowing through the streambeds of literary works that fostered love for both one’s beloved and one’s country.

Imperishable love

Rizal was born in 1861, a year before the death of Balagtas. His patriotic credo is etched in the eternal language of his 1882 poem when he was 21 years old: “Love of country, once it has entered the heart, can never be expunged because it bears a divine mark that makes it eternal and imperishable.”

Unlike Florante at Laura, Rizal had no use for masks. He boldly exposed the afflictions of his country and flung them straight into the face of the Spaniards. Using the prose and poetry of eternity, he embraced death without a blindfold in Bagumbayan.

Rizal wrote the pulse of his society by telling the entire story of the Filipino people—their past, present, and future. More than 300 years of Spanish rule introduced nothing more than insipid changes in their lives. It was time to demand independence and build a future heralded by a new dawn.

To this end, Rizal annotated Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (1890) to underscore the honesty and industry of precolonial Filipinos. He wrote Noli Me Tangere (1887) to compel Filipinos to stand up to their indentured present. He followed it with El Filibusterismo (1891) to exhort Filipinos to change through revolution. And to prime Filipinos for the future, he published the prophetic Las Filipinas Dentro de Cien Años (1889-1890) to reveal the great possibilities on the progress that lay ahead.

Having laid the patriotic ideological foundations, he then focused on his epic mission—to found the nation. Seven days after returning to the Philippines from Hong Kong on June 26, 1892, Rizal secretly established La Liga Filipina. Arrested for smuggling anti-friar leaflets, he was banished to Dapitan on July 15, 1892 where he forged, in microcosm, the making of the nation through progressive education, social entrepreneurship, and community development. Mi Retiro (My Retreat) and Himno a Talisay (Hymn to Talisay) were inspirations of calm solitude prior to his culminating explosion of love in Bagumbayan.

Poet of the heart

Two years before Rizal died, Jose Corazon de Jesus (Huseng Batute) was born in Sta. Cruz, Manila. He later moved to Sta. Maria, Bulacan, where he grew up. The premier poet of the country during the American period and a prodigious image-maker, he was regarded as the “poet of the heart” (makata ng puso). Balagtas, on the other hand, was an excellent versifier and was considered as the “poet of life” (makata ng buhay). The two may be said to have put Rizal in the forefront as the “consciousness changer,” whom Filipinos recognized as the “Father of the Nation.”

Corazon de Jesus died young (38), as did Rizal (35). But in that short lifetime during the American period, Corazon de Jesus reflected in his works the Filipino soul, concentrating his affections on national consciousness to instill confidence and excellence in ourselves.

Which Filipino grew up without remembering the rhythm and romance of Corazon de Jesus’s poems like Pamana (Legacy), Ang Pagbabalik (The Return), and Ang Manok Kong Bulik (My Colorful Fighting Cock)? Recall the last stanza of Pamana: “‘Nguni’t Inang!’ ang sagot ko, ‘ang lahat ng kasangkapan, Ang lahat ng hiyas dito ay hindi ko kailangan; Ang ibig ko’y mabuhay ka, ang mahal ko’y ikaw, Inang; Hinihingi ko sa Diyos na ang mana ko ay ikaw! Aanhin ko ang piyano, kapag ikaw ay namatay, Ni hindi ko matutugtug sa tabi ng iyong hukay …..Ni hindi ka maaring pantayan ng daigdigan, Ng lahat ng ginto rito, pagka’t wala kang kapantay.”

Corazon de Jesus, through his ideology on love, always reminds us that to love is noble: “Umibig ka sa irog mo nang wala mang pag-iimbot, hanggang ikaw’y nabubuhay, hanggang ikaw ay malagot; umibig ka sa bayan mo na ganap at lalong lubos, hanggang siya’y makalaya’t hanggang siya ay matubos. Umibig ka, umibig ka ng umibig hanggang wakas, at ang mundo’y isang hardin ng mababangong bulaklak: kung hindi ka nakasamyo ng bulaklak ng pagliyag, isumpa mo ang sandaling kung bakit ka inianak.”

Poems from our hearts, magical, indelible, forever.