Richardson, Jim. "Notes on Kalayaan, the Katipunan paper" (November 30, 2005).
Introduction
The rapid growth of the Katipunan in the months immediately prior to August 1896 is often attributed in large part to the circulation of the first and only issue of its paper, Kalayaan. Unfortunately, no copy of the paper has yet been located, and with three signal exceptions –- the poem "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" and the articles "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" and "Pahayag" –- its incendiary contents are little known.
This piece recapitulates what has been written so far about the paper; details (in the endnotes) where various versions of items from Kalayaan have been published to date; and reproduces, for the first time, Tagalog versions (with English translations) of a substantial section of its lead editorial -- "Sa mga Kababayan" -- and an article entitled "Katuiran din naman!" It also reproduces a Tagalog version of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" that differs (though not greatly) from those published hitherto. The piece is part of a "work in progress" that I intend to submit for publication in due course, and any corrections or comments will be most welcome.
Sources
Except where specified otherwise, the information on Kalayaan in this piece is derived from six key sources: (i) Wenceslao E. Retana (comp.), Archivo del bibliófilo filipino, vol.III (Madrid: Imprenta de la Viuda de M. Minuesa de los Rios, 1897); pp.132-48; (ii) Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, Andrés Bonifacio y el "Katipunan" (Manila: Libreria "Manila Filatelica", 1911); (iii) Epifanio de los Santos, "Andrés Bonifacio" [in Spanish], Revista Filipina, II:11 (November 1917), pp.59-82, which was translated into English by Gregorio Nieva and published in Philippine Review, III:1-2 (January-February 1918), pp.34-58; (iv) Epifanio de los Santos, "Emilio Jacinto", Philippine Review, III:6 (June 1918), pp.412-30; (v) José P. Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio at ang Himagsikan (Manila: n.pub, 1935); and (vi) the various recollections of Pio Valenzuela, especially his "Memoirs" (translated by Luis Serrano from an unpublished manuscript in Tagalog (c.1914) and reproduced as Appendix A in Minutes of the Katipunan (Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1964), pp.91-109, and his conversations with Teodoro A. Agoncillo for the latter’s The Revolt of the Masses: the story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1956).
This website includes links to the above-mentioned works on Bonifacio by Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, Epifanio de los Santos and José P. Santos as made available online in the section entitled "The United States and its Territories – 1870-1925: the Age of Imperialism" within the University of Michigan Digital Library.
Production of the paper
Prior to 1896, it seems, the Katipunan did not publish any propaganda materials. The association apparently did have a printing press1, but its capacity was low, and the extensive or protracted use of any other press, it may be presumed, was feared to run too high a risk of betrayal and discovery. A few documents, such as membership forms and the sheets bearing the questions initiates had to answer ("¿Ano ang kalagayan nitong Katagalugan nang unang panahun?", etc.) were reportedly printed clandestinely on the presses of the Spanish daily Diario de Manila, but these were small in size and limited in quantity. In 1895, however, a press was purchased for the Katipunan by two members from Kalibo, Francisco del Castillo and Candido Iban, who had recently returned to the Philippines after working as shell and pearl divers in Australia and had some money from a lottery win. They bought the press and a small quantity of type from Antonio Salazar’s "Bazar El Cisne" on Calle Carriedo, and Del Castillo transported it to the house of Andrés Bonifacio in the Santa Cruz district of Manila. On December 31, 1895, according to Valenzuela, a meeting was held at Bonifacio’s house for the purpose of electing the members of the new Supreme Council of the Katipunan. Bonifacio was re-elected as Pangulo (President), Emilio Jacinto was elected Kalihim (Secretary) and he, Valenzuela, was elected Taga-usig (Fiscal). The following day, Valenzuela continues, he told Bonifacio that he would accept this position "on condition that he would give me the printing press of the Katipunan, which he had in his house, so that I could direct and edit a monthly review, which was to be the organ of the Katipunan." Bonifacio agreed, and in mid-January 1896 the press was transferred to Valenzuela’s residence on Calle de Lavezares in San Nicolas. To assist with the actual printing, Valenzuela recruited two of his town mates from Polo, Bulacan -- Ulpiano Fernandez, who earned his living as a printer with the paper El Comercio, and Faustino Duque, a student at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
After making these arrangements, however, Valenzuela very soon decided that he "had no time to take charge of the printing" because of his commitments as a physician and a Katipunan organizer. Nor, apparently, did he retain much of his "directing" role. Responsibility both for producing and for editing Kalayaan then passed to Emilio Jacinto, who went to the house on Lavezares after his pre-law classes at the Universidad de Santo Tómas. On the production side, the main problem was a shortage of type. Wishing to compose the paper in accord with the new Tagalog orthography that disdainful Spaniards called "Germanized" ("alemanizada"), the printers lacked in particular the letters "k" and "w", and also "h", "y" and the common vowels. Jacinto was obliged to ask his mother, Josefa Dizon, for P20 so that he could buy type from Isabelo de los Reyes, who owned a printing press, and Valenzuela bought and begged some more from employees of the press of the Diario de Manila. Even then, Valenzuela recalls, there was only enough type to set one page at a time, and the laborious process of setting all eight pages took two months to complete. Though dated January 1896 on its masthead, the paper did not finally appear until about the middle of March.
Valenzuela states that 2,000 copies were printed, but Epifanio de los Santos puts the figure at just 1,000, of which 700 were distributed by Andrés Bonifacio in Manila and the surrounding towns, 200 in Cavite by Emilio Aguinaldo and the other 100 by Pio Valenzuela in Bulacan.
Significance
Prior to the paper coming out, Valenzuela remarks, the Katipunan’s membership had reached only about 300 in four years, but after Kalayaan began to circulate the association attracted new thousands of new adherents. By the outbreak of the revolution in August 1896, he estimates, it had 20,000 or even 30,000 members.2
Nobody knew the exact membership figures, of course, and nobody today can weigh the impact of Kalayaan against other eventualities that added to the gathering momentum of the Katipunan in the early months of 1896 – more vigorous and open recruitment; more frequent meetings in Manila and beyond; and the consequent fact that the Spanish authorities, well before the "discovery" of the association by Padre Mariano Gil of Tondo in mid-August, had tightened their surveillance and persecution of suspected "filibusteros" and thereby provoked a further escalation of bitterness and anger. The crackdown, it is said, led Bonifacio to warn branch leaders as early as May that the KKK’s secrecy had been broken, and that the association now found itself like a pregnant woman forced by circumstances to deliver before her time was due.3
But whatever the true measure of Kalayaan’s contribution to this swelling tide of events, the paper has its own intrinsic importance. Not only was it the first publication of the Katipunan prior to August 1896, it was also the last. Produced and circulated on the brink of the revolution, its pages, and its pages alone, carried in print the message of liberty the three top-ranking leaders of the Katipunan –- Bonifacio, Jacinto and Valenzuela –- wanted the bayan to hear and to heed.
Physical appearance
Judging from Valenzuela’s recollections, the pages of Kalayaan measured about 9 inches across and 12 inches tall, slightly larger than the A4 paper size of today. As just mentioned, his memoirs state unequivocally that there were eight pages. In a contemporary article in Heraldo de Madrid, Wenceslao Retana indicates there were thirty-two pages, but given the length of the known contributions this seems most unlikely.4 It might be speculated that Retana had not seen the paper himself, but had deduced from despatches from Manila that eight sheets of paper, each folded in the centre and printed on both sides, would carry thirty-two sides of text.
Most of the text was in font size 12, with a lesser amount in size 10.
Contents
Title: Pio Valenzuela claims it was he who chose the title Kalayaan. This term had only gained currency in a political context since Marcelo H. del Pilar employed it to render the Spanish word "libertad" when he translated José Rizal’s essay "El Amor Patrio" for the Manila paper Diariong Tagalog in 1882.5 Rizal himself had subsequently used "kalayaan" to render the French "liberté" when he translated the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen", the famous document approved by the National Assembly of France in August 1789.6
Masthead: Printed in Tagalog beneath the banner title, in a smaller typeface, was the following:
"Issued at the end of each month.
Year 1 –- Yokohama, January 1896 –- No.1
Subscription price –- half a peso for three months. To be paid in advance. If purchased, 2 reales per issue.
Submissions must be signed by their authors.
The news, as far as it can be told."
Pio Valenzuela claims credit, too, for Yokohama being put on the masthead as the place of publication and for the impression being given that Marcelo H. del Pilar was the editor of the paper. Whether Del Pilar’s name was actually printed is not clear, but the lead editorial purported to be his message of greeting and solidarity to his compatriots, sent from afar. According to Retana, Governor General Ramón Blanco at first believed that the "nuevo papel filibustero" had indeed emanated from Yokohama, and wanted to send an envoy, Alfredo Villeta, to Japan to investigate. Blanco abandoned the idea, however, when asked to authorise a budget for the mission of 800 pesos over three months.
The price for copies bought individually –- 2 reales –- was equivalent to 25 centavos. Readers who paid in advance for three months, it was intended, should get a fifty per cent discount.
Articles
I. Lead editorial - "Sa mga Kababayan" [Unsigned] 7
Attributed by Artigas y Cuerva to Andrés Bonifacio and Pio Valenzuela, but attributed by Valenzuela himself to Emilio Jacinto. "I wrote the first editorial and handed it to Emilio Jacinto for publication in the first issue", Valenzuela writes, [but when] he "showed me the proof of the first page [I saw to my surprise] that the printed editorial was not the one I had given him but another by Marcelo H. del Pilar in La Solidaridad," the organ of the propaganda movement in Spain that had ceased publication in 1895. This editorial, Valenzuela continues, "was translated into Tagalog by Jacinto, and was much better than the one I had prepared. I told Jacinto that I almost believed that the real editor of [Kalayaan] was Del Pilar himself. There were various Bulaqueños who knew the Tagalog of Del Pilar, and they declared the language used by Jacinto in his translation resembled Del Pilar’s perfectly." In his conversations many years later with Agoncillo, Valenzuela varied this account slightly, recollecting that Jacinto based "Sa mga Kababayan" not on a single editorial by Del Pilar but on extracts from more than one.
In the piece, "Del Pilar" sends his salutations, laments that Spain had scorned La Solidaridad’s patient supplications, and urges his compatriots now to support the cause of Kalayaan and take charge of their own destiny.
A draft of the first two-thirds of this editorial (with an English translation) is reproduced below as Document A. The remaining three paragraphs have not yet been located in Tagalog, but to give at least an indication of how the piece concluded they are translated into English here from the Spanish translation published by Retana in 1897.
II. "Pahayag" [signed Dimas Ilaw]8
Attributed by Pio Valenzuela to Emilio Jacinto. A patriotic youth describes the misfortunes of his country to an apparition of Liberty. She tells him that only those who are willing to die for her are worthy of her.
Valenzuela recollects that in writing the piece Jacinto took inspiration from a book called Las Ruinas de Palmira. This was a Spanish edition of Les Ruines, ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires by the French philosophe Constantin-François de Volney. Published in 1791, Volney’s work became a late Enlightenment classic, and in various translations remained influential throughout the 19th century. It made a great impression on Abraham Lincoln, and Andrés Bonifacio reportedly had a personal copy that he donated to the Katipunan’s small library. Aside from reflecting upon the pretensions and transience of empires, Volney’s discourse affirms the equality of men before the law, advocates the overthrow of tyranny, and argues that in matters of religion the truth cannot be known beyond the law of nature, by which God governs the universe.
III. "¿Katuiran din naman?" [signed Madlangaway]
Attributed by Pio Valenzuela to himself. It relates "the cruelty perpetrated by the priest of San Francisco del Monte and the Guardia Civil against a poor barrio lieutenant."
A draft of this article (with an English translation) is reproduced below as Document B.
IV. "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" [signed Agap-Ito Bagum-bayan]9
Attributed by Artigas y Cuerva and Pio Valenzuela to Andrés Bonifacio. The Tagalogs, this well known work declares, have supported and sustained "the race of Legazpi" for 300 years, but have been rewarded with treachery, "false beliefs" and dishonour. "To eyes long blind", the light of reason has now unveiled this harsh injustice and revealed the separate, self-reliant road the Tagalogs must take.
V. "Pagibig sa Tinibuang Bayan" [signed A.B. or A.I.B.]10
Attributed by Pio Valenzuela to Andrés Bonifacio. This celebrated paean to patriotism calls upon the people to rise up and rescue the unhappy motherland from her torment.
A draft of this poem is reproduced below as Document C.
VI. "Balita" [Unsigned]
Described by Teodoro Agoncillo as "a sprinkling of news items"; the text is yet to be located.
VII. Other articles?
In his Archivo, Retana lists only the six items listed above. In his article in the Spanish daily Heraldo de Madrid, however, he seems to allude to two further pieces. One contribution to Kalayaan, he writes, condemns the religious ideas taught by the friars as nothing but myths, and the churches as places of idolatry and greed. Another piece, says Retana, salutes the Cuban revolt against Spain and the victory of Japan in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5. Japan is hailed as a nation to be admired and emulated.11 None of these topics is treated in the Kalayaan texts yet located, so unless they were carried as news items under the heading "Balita" there were presumably other contributions. Pio Valenzuela, similarly, remembers there being an article by Emilio Jacinto in Kalayaan "urging the Filipino people to revolt as the only recourse to secure liberty", a description that likewise does not fit any of the known items.
Texts
The Tagalog versions of "Sa mga Kababayan", "Katuiran din naman!" and "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" reproduced below have been transcribed (with difficulty) from three separate handwritten documents. In each case, it appears that the handwriting is not that of the person to whom the piece is most commonly ascribed. "Sa mga Kababayan", usually attributed to Emilio Jacinto, is identified in a file note as being in the handwriting of Andrés Bonifacio. Conversely, a note on the front page of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan", which is usually attributed to Andres Bonifacio, indicates that the text is in the handwriting of Emilio Jacinto. Signed by sometime KKK Supreme Council member Valentin Diaz, the note reads "Letra de Emilio Jacinto segun manifiesta Aguedo del Rosario" –- Aguedo del Rosario being another KKK Supreme Council member. Both these identifications are seemingly corroborated if the documents are compared with others known to have been penned by Bonifacio and Jacinto. "Katuiran din naman!", meanwhile, which Valenzuela claims to have authored, also appears to be in Jacinto’s handwriting.
But the identities of the respective penmen, of course, do not necessarily correspond with the identities of the respective authors. The editorial "Sa mga Kababayan" is unsigned, but beneath "Katuiran din naman!" appears the pseudonym "Madlangaway", which Valenzuela said was his, and beneath the poem are the initials "A.B.", suggesting Andrés Bonifacio. It is entirely plausible that the texts were copied, one by Bonifacio and two by Jacinto, whilst Kalayaan was being prepared for publication, perhaps for editing purposes and perhaps to make them more legible for the printers.
It is unlikely that these versions are either the ‘original’ first drafts or the "final" texts that actually appeared in print. Most probably, in other words, there were earlier drafts, and almost certainly there were later amendments. What can be said, however, is that the Tagalog version of "Sa mga Kababayan" reproduced below does correspond very substantially with the Spanish translation published by Retana in 1897, and that the Tagalog version of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" does correspond substantially with the Tagalog version first published by José P. Santos in 1935. Since the text of "Katuiran din naman!" has not previously been published in any language, we have no basis for comparison.
The version of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" therefore enables a little more to be said in response to the questions raised by Glenn May in Inventing a Hero. In that book, May calls into serious doubt the scholarship of José P. Santos, and specifically questions the provenance of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan", "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" and other texts whose authorship Santos ascribes to Bonifacio. These texts, May writes, "do not deserve the respect that historians have given them over the years."12
It is now clear that the Tagalog text of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" published by Santos was not crafted or reconstructed to any significant degree by him or anyone else in the 20th century. It is, substantially, the text that was published in Kalayaan in 1896. This, it might be contended, makes it more likely that Santos also had to hand an authentic version of "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" dating from 1896. But in response to these points, for sure, Glenn May would say that his doubts and questions were legitimate, that other "Bonifacio" documents remain suspect, and that we still cannot be sure that "Pagibig sa Tinibuang Bayan" and "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" were indeed authored by Bonifacio.13 On this last point, it can only be remarked that Pio Valenzuela was certainly in a position to know who wrote these two pieces, and that there is no obvious reason why he should pretend it was Bonifacio if it was not.
The original Tagalog texts bear accents in accordance with the conventions of the time, but these have been omitted here due to the difficulties of rendering them in electronic format, particularly the double-width tilde over the word and sound "ng". Examples of other diacritics consistently employed by Bonifacio and Jacinto include acute accents over the second "a" in words like "anak" and "agad"; circumflexes over the "i" in "di"; and grave accents over the "o" in words like "puso" and "hibo". Words that are difficult to decipher are followed by a question mark in square brackets –- [?] –- and round brackets –- (!!) –- are as found in the originals. Paragraph and verse numbers do not appear in the originals, and have been inserted simply to facilitate comparison between the Tagalog and English texts of the two articles and, in the case of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan", comparison with other versions.
Document A
Introduction
The rapid growth of the Katipunan in the months immediately prior to August 1896 is often attributed in large part to the circulation of the first and only issue of its paper, Kalayaan. Unfortunately, no copy of the paper has yet been located, and with three signal exceptions –- the poem "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" and the articles "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" and "Pahayag" –- its incendiary contents are little known.
This piece recapitulates what has been written so far about the paper; details (in the endnotes) where various versions of items from Kalayaan have been published to date; and reproduces, for the first time, Tagalog versions (with English translations) of a substantial section of its lead editorial -- "Sa mga Kababayan" -- and an article entitled "Katuiran din naman!" It also reproduces a Tagalog version of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" that differs (though not greatly) from those published hitherto. The piece is part of a "work in progress" that I intend to submit for publication in due course, and any corrections or comments will be most welcome.
Sources
Except where specified otherwise, the information on Kalayaan in this piece is derived from six key sources: (i) Wenceslao E. Retana (comp.), Archivo del bibliófilo filipino, vol.III (Madrid: Imprenta de la Viuda de M. Minuesa de los Rios, 1897); pp.132-48; (ii) Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, Andrés Bonifacio y el "Katipunan" (Manila: Libreria "Manila Filatelica", 1911); (iii) Epifanio de los Santos, "Andrés Bonifacio" [in Spanish], Revista Filipina, II:11 (November 1917), pp.59-82, which was translated into English by Gregorio Nieva and published in Philippine Review, III:1-2 (January-February 1918), pp.34-58; (iv) Epifanio de los Santos, "Emilio Jacinto", Philippine Review, III:6 (June 1918), pp.412-30; (v) José P. Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio at ang Himagsikan (Manila: n.pub, 1935); and (vi) the various recollections of Pio Valenzuela, especially his "Memoirs" (translated by Luis Serrano from an unpublished manuscript in Tagalog (c.1914) and reproduced as Appendix A in Minutes of the Katipunan (Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1964), pp.91-109, and his conversations with Teodoro A. Agoncillo for the latter’s The Revolt of the Masses: the story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1956).
This website includes links to the above-mentioned works on Bonifacio by Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, Epifanio de los Santos and José P. Santos as made available online in the section entitled "The United States and its Territories – 1870-1925: the Age of Imperialism" within the University of Michigan Digital Library.
Production of the paper
Prior to 1896, it seems, the Katipunan did not publish any propaganda materials. The association apparently did have a printing press1, but its capacity was low, and the extensive or protracted use of any other press, it may be presumed, was feared to run too high a risk of betrayal and discovery. A few documents, such as membership forms and the sheets bearing the questions initiates had to answer ("¿Ano ang kalagayan nitong Katagalugan nang unang panahun?", etc.) were reportedly printed clandestinely on the presses of the Spanish daily Diario de Manila, but these were small in size and limited in quantity. In 1895, however, a press was purchased for the Katipunan by two members from Kalibo, Francisco del Castillo and Candido Iban, who had recently returned to the Philippines after working as shell and pearl divers in Australia and had some money from a lottery win. They bought the press and a small quantity of type from Antonio Salazar’s "Bazar El Cisne" on Calle Carriedo, and Del Castillo transported it to the house of Andrés Bonifacio in the Santa Cruz district of Manila. On December 31, 1895, according to Valenzuela, a meeting was held at Bonifacio’s house for the purpose of electing the members of the new Supreme Council of the Katipunan. Bonifacio was re-elected as Pangulo (President), Emilio Jacinto was elected Kalihim (Secretary) and he, Valenzuela, was elected Taga-usig (Fiscal). The following day, Valenzuela continues, he told Bonifacio that he would accept this position "on condition that he would give me the printing press of the Katipunan, which he had in his house, so that I could direct and edit a monthly review, which was to be the organ of the Katipunan." Bonifacio agreed, and in mid-January 1896 the press was transferred to Valenzuela’s residence on Calle de Lavezares in San Nicolas. To assist with the actual printing, Valenzuela recruited two of his town mates from Polo, Bulacan -- Ulpiano Fernandez, who earned his living as a printer with the paper El Comercio, and Faustino Duque, a student at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
After making these arrangements, however, Valenzuela very soon decided that he "had no time to take charge of the printing" because of his commitments as a physician and a Katipunan organizer. Nor, apparently, did he retain much of his "directing" role. Responsibility both for producing and for editing Kalayaan then passed to Emilio Jacinto, who went to the house on Lavezares after his pre-law classes at the Universidad de Santo Tómas. On the production side, the main problem was a shortage of type. Wishing to compose the paper in accord with the new Tagalog orthography that disdainful Spaniards called "Germanized" ("alemanizada"), the printers lacked in particular the letters "k" and "w", and also "h", "y" and the common vowels. Jacinto was obliged to ask his mother, Josefa Dizon, for P20 so that he could buy type from Isabelo de los Reyes, who owned a printing press, and Valenzuela bought and begged some more from employees of the press of the Diario de Manila. Even then, Valenzuela recalls, there was only enough type to set one page at a time, and the laborious process of setting all eight pages took two months to complete. Though dated January 1896 on its masthead, the paper did not finally appear until about the middle of March.
Valenzuela states that 2,000 copies were printed, but Epifanio de los Santos puts the figure at just 1,000, of which 700 were distributed by Andrés Bonifacio in Manila and the surrounding towns, 200 in Cavite by Emilio Aguinaldo and the other 100 by Pio Valenzuela in Bulacan.
Significance
Prior to the paper coming out, Valenzuela remarks, the Katipunan’s membership had reached only about 300 in four years, but after Kalayaan began to circulate the association attracted new thousands of new adherents. By the outbreak of the revolution in August 1896, he estimates, it had 20,000 or even 30,000 members.2
Nobody knew the exact membership figures, of course, and nobody today can weigh the impact of Kalayaan against other eventualities that added to the gathering momentum of the Katipunan in the early months of 1896 – more vigorous and open recruitment; more frequent meetings in Manila and beyond; and the consequent fact that the Spanish authorities, well before the "discovery" of the association by Padre Mariano Gil of Tondo in mid-August, had tightened their surveillance and persecution of suspected "filibusteros" and thereby provoked a further escalation of bitterness and anger. The crackdown, it is said, led Bonifacio to warn branch leaders as early as May that the KKK’s secrecy had been broken, and that the association now found itself like a pregnant woman forced by circumstances to deliver before her time was due.3
But whatever the true measure of Kalayaan’s contribution to this swelling tide of events, the paper has its own intrinsic importance. Not only was it the first publication of the Katipunan prior to August 1896, it was also the last. Produced and circulated on the brink of the revolution, its pages, and its pages alone, carried in print the message of liberty the three top-ranking leaders of the Katipunan –- Bonifacio, Jacinto and Valenzuela –- wanted the bayan to hear and to heed.
Physical appearance
Judging from Valenzuela’s recollections, the pages of Kalayaan measured about 9 inches across and 12 inches tall, slightly larger than the A4 paper size of today. As just mentioned, his memoirs state unequivocally that there were eight pages. In a contemporary article in Heraldo de Madrid, Wenceslao Retana indicates there were thirty-two pages, but given the length of the known contributions this seems most unlikely.4 It might be speculated that Retana had not seen the paper himself, but had deduced from despatches from Manila that eight sheets of paper, each folded in the centre and printed on both sides, would carry thirty-two sides of text.
Most of the text was in font size 12, with a lesser amount in size 10.
Contents
Title: Pio Valenzuela claims it was he who chose the title Kalayaan. This term had only gained currency in a political context since Marcelo H. del Pilar employed it to render the Spanish word "libertad" when he translated José Rizal’s essay "El Amor Patrio" for the Manila paper Diariong Tagalog in 1882.5 Rizal himself had subsequently used "kalayaan" to render the French "liberté" when he translated the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen", the famous document approved by the National Assembly of France in August 1789.6
Masthead: Printed in Tagalog beneath the banner title, in a smaller typeface, was the following:
"Issued at the end of each month.
Year 1 –- Yokohama, January 1896 –- No.1
Subscription price –- half a peso for three months. To be paid in advance. If purchased, 2 reales per issue.
Submissions must be signed by their authors.
The news, as far as it can be told."
Pio Valenzuela claims credit, too, for Yokohama being put on the masthead as the place of publication and for the impression being given that Marcelo H. del Pilar was the editor of the paper. Whether Del Pilar’s name was actually printed is not clear, but the lead editorial purported to be his message of greeting and solidarity to his compatriots, sent from afar. According to Retana, Governor General Ramón Blanco at first believed that the "nuevo papel filibustero" had indeed emanated from Yokohama, and wanted to send an envoy, Alfredo Villeta, to Japan to investigate. Blanco abandoned the idea, however, when asked to authorise a budget for the mission of 800 pesos over three months.
The price for copies bought individually –- 2 reales –- was equivalent to 25 centavos. Readers who paid in advance for three months, it was intended, should get a fifty per cent discount.
Articles
I. Lead editorial - "Sa mga Kababayan" [Unsigned] 7
Attributed by Artigas y Cuerva to Andrés Bonifacio and Pio Valenzuela, but attributed by Valenzuela himself to Emilio Jacinto. "I wrote the first editorial and handed it to Emilio Jacinto for publication in the first issue", Valenzuela writes, [but when] he "showed me the proof of the first page [I saw to my surprise] that the printed editorial was not the one I had given him but another by Marcelo H. del Pilar in La Solidaridad," the organ of the propaganda movement in Spain that had ceased publication in 1895. This editorial, Valenzuela continues, "was translated into Tagalog by Jacinto, and was much better than the one I had prepared. I told Jacinto that I almost believed that the real editor of [Kalayaan] was Del Pilar himself. There were various Bulaqueños who knew the Tagalog of Del Pilar, and they declared the language used by Jacinto in his translation resembled Del Pilar’s perfectly." In his conversations many years later with Agoncillo, Valenzuela varied this account slightly, recollecting that Jacinto based "Sa mga Kababayan" not on a single editorial by Del Pilar but on extracts from more than one.
In the piece, "Del Pilar" sends his salutations, laments that Spain had scorned La Solidaridad’s patient supplications, and urges his compatriots now to support the cause of Kalayaan and take charge of their own destiny.
A draft of the first two-thirds of this editorial (with an English translation) is reproduced below as Document A. The remaining three paragraphs have not yet been located in Tagalog, but to give at least an indication of how the piece concluded they are translated into English here from the Spanish translation published by Retana in 1897.
II. "Pahayag" [signed Dimas Ilaw]8
Attributed by Pio Valenzuela to Emilio Jacinto. A patriotic youth describes the misfortunes of his country to an apparition of Liberty. She tells him that only those who are willing to die for her are worthy of her.
Valenzuela recollects that in writing the piece Jacinto took inspiration from a book called Las Ruinas de Palmira. This was a Spanish edition of Les Ruines, ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires by the French philosophe Constantin-François de Volney. Published in 1791, Volney’s work became a late Enlightenment classic, and in various translations remained influential throughout the 19th century. It made a great impression on Abraham Lincoln, and Andrés Bonifacio reportedly had a personal copy that he donated to the Katipunan’s small library. Aside from reflecting upon the pretensions and transience of empires, Volney’s discourse affirms the equality of men before the law, advocates the overthrow of tyranny, and argues that in matters of religion the truth cannot be known beyond the law of nature, by which God governs the universe.
III. "¿Katuiran din naman?" [signed Madlangaway]
Attributed by Pio Valenzuela to himself. It relates "the cruelty perpetrated by the priest of San Francisco del Monte and the Guardia Civil against a poor barrio lieutenant."
A draft of this article (with an English translation) is reproduced below as Document B.
IV. "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" [signed Agap-Ito Bagum-bayan]9
Attributed by Artigas y Cuerva and Pio Valenzuela to Andrés Bonifacio. The Tagalogs, this well known work declares, have supported and sustained "the race of Legazpi" for 300 years, but have been rewarded with treachery, "false beliefs" and dishonour. "To eyes long blind", the light of reason has now unveiled this harsh injustice and revealed the separate, self-reliant road the Tagalogs must take.
V. "Pagibig sa Tinibuang Bayan" [signed A.B. or A.I.B.]10
Attributed by Pio Valenzuela to Andrés Bonifacio. This celebrated paean to patriotism calls upon the people to rise up and rescue the unhappy motherland from her torment.
A draft of this poem is reproduced below as Document C.
VI. "Balita" [Unsigned]
Described by Teodoro Agoncillo as "a sprinkling of news items"; the text is yet to be located.
VII. Other articles?
In his Archivo, Retana lists only the six items listed above. In his article in the Spanish daily Heraldo de Madrid, however, he seems to allude to two further pieces. One contribution to Kalayaan, he writes, condemns the religious ideas taught by the friars as nothing but myths, and the churches as places of idolatry and greed. Another piece, says Retana, salutes the Cuban revolt against Spain and the victory of Japan in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5. Japan is hailed as a nation to be admired and emulated.11 None of these topics is treated in the Kalayaan texts yet located, so unless they were carried as news items under the heading "Balita" there were presumably other contributions. Pio Valenzuela, similarly, remembers there being an article by Emilio Jacinto in Kalayaan "urging the Filipino people to revolt as the only recourse to secure liberty", a description that likewise does not fit any of the known items.
Texts
The Tagalog versions of "Sa mga Kababayan", "Katuiran din naman!" and "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" reproduced below have been transcribed (with difficulty) from three separate handwritten documents. In each case, it appears that the handwriting is not that of the person to whom the piece is most commonly ascribed. "Sa mga Kababayan", usually attributed to Emilio Jacinto, is identified in a file note as being in the handwriting of Andrés Bonifacio. Conversely, a note on the front page of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan", which is usually attributed to Andres Bonifacio, indicates that the text is in the handwriting of Emilio Jacinto. Signed by sometime KKK Supreme Council member Valentin Diaz, the note reads "Letra de Emilio Jacinto segun manifiesta Aguedo del Rosario" –- Aguedo del Rosario being another KKK Supreme Council member. Both these identifications are seemingly corroborated if the documents are compared with others known to have been penned by Bonifacio and Jacinto. "Katuiran din naman!", meanwhile, which Valenzuela claims to have authored, also appears to be in Jacinto’s handwriting.
But the identities of the respective penmen, of course, do not necessarily correspond with the identities of the respective authors. The editorial "Sa mga Kababayan" is unsigned, but beneath "Katuiran din naman!" appears the pseudonym "Madlangaway", which Valenzuela said was his, and beneath the poem are the initials "A.B.", suggesting Andrés Bonifacio. It is entirely plausible that the texts were copied, one by Bonifacio and two by Jacinto, whilst Kalayaan was being prepared for publication, perhaps for editing purposes and perhaps to make them more legible for the printers.
It is unlikely that these versions are either the ‘original’ first drafts or the "final" texts that actually appeared in print. Most probably, in other words, there were earlier drafts, and almost certainly there were later amendments. What can be said, however, is that the Tagalog version of "Sa mga Kababayan" reproduced below does correspond very substantially with the Spanish translation published by Retana in 1897, and that the Tagalog version of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" does correspond substantially with the Tagalog version first published by José P. Santos in 1935. Since the text of "Katuiran din naman!" has not previously been published in any language, we have no basis for comparison.
The version of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" therefore enables a little more to be said in response to the questions raised by Glenn May in Inventing a Hero. In that book, May calls into serious doubt the scholarship of José P. Santos, and specifically questions the provenance of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan", "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" and other texts whose authorship Santos ascribes to Bonifacio. These texts, May writes, "do not deserve the respect that historians have given them over the years."12
It is now clear that the Tagalog text of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" published by Santos was not crafted or reconstructed to any significant degree by him or anyone else in the 20th century. It is, substantially, the text that was published in Kalayaan in 1896. This, it might be contended, makes it more likely that Santos also had to hand an authentic version of "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" dating from 1896. But in response to these points, for sure, Glenn May would say that his doubts and questions were legitimate, that other "Bonifacio" documents remain suspect, and that we still cannot be sure that "Pagibig sa Tinibuang Bayan" and "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" were indeed authored by Bonifacio.13 On this last point, it can only be remarked that Pio Valenzuela was certainly in a position to know who wrote these two pieces, and that there is no obvious reason why he should pretend it was Bonifacio if it was not.
The original Tagalog texts bear accents in accordance with the conventions of the time, but these have been omitted here due to the difficulties of rendering them in electronic format, particularly the double-width tilde over the word and sound "ng". Examples of other diacritics consistently employed by Bonifacio and Jacinto include acute accents over the second "a" in words like "anak" and "agad"; circumflexes over the "i" in "di"; and grave accents over the "o" in words like "puso" and "hibo". Words that are difficult to decipher are followed by a question mark in square brackets –- [?] –- and round brackets –- (!!) –- are as found in the originals. Paragraph and verse numbers do not appear in the originals, and have been inserted simply to facilitate comparison between the Tagalog and English texts of the two articles and, in the case of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan", comparison with other versions.
Document A
1.
Buhat dito sa kabila ng malawak na dagat, sa sinapupunan at pagkakandili ng ibang lupa at ibang mga kautusan, sa inyo mga kababayan ang tungo ng aming unang bati, ang kaunaunahang salita na iguhit ng aming kamay, ang unang himutok na pumulas sa aming dibdib, ang unang pag bigkas ng aming mga labi…sa lahat ay sa inyo.
2.
Inyo ngang tangapin, at masarapin tunay ng inyong kalooban, sa pagkat nagbubuhat sa tapat naming puso, na wala nang iba pang itinitibok kung di isang matinding pag ibig sa tinubuang Bayan at tunay na pag daramdam sa pagkaapi at inaabot nyang kadustaan.
3.
Kapagkarakang narinig ng aming mga tainga ang inyong mga pag daing, kapagkarakang mapag malas ng aming mga mata ang inyong pagkaaping walang makatulad at mabangis na kahirapan, agad nang nukal na kusa sa aming kalooban ang isang banal at dakilang nasa, na kayo’y maibangon sa pagkalugmok at pukawin ang inyong puso sa pagkahimbing at malusong pagkagupiling o maampat kaya ang matinding dagok ng sakit at kalumbayang inyong tinitiis.
4.
Tunay na kami ay umasa din, gaya ng makapal na mga kababayan na nagakala na ang inang Espana ay siyang tanging may karapatang mag bigay ng kaginhawahan nitong Katagalugan. Nguni’t ang panahung lumipas, ang patung patung na pag ulol ang walang pangitang silo ng daya na sa aking isinumang, ang mga pangakung hindi tinutupad, ay siyang omuntag [?] sa aming payapang at katiwalang kalooban at nag pakilalang tayo’y siyang gumawa at may yaman at umiasa’t antain sa ating lakas na sarili ikabubuhay.
5.
¿Ano pa ang inaantay at hinahangad? Tatlong daang taung mahigit na pag titiis sa bigat ng pamatok ng pagkaalipin, malaung panahung wala tayong ginawa kungdi ang lumuhogluhog at humingi sa kanila ng kahit gabuhit na pag lingap at kaunting paglingon, gayon ma’y ¿ano ang nakikita nating isinasagut at iginaganti sa ating pag mamakaawa? Wala kung di ang tayo’y itapun isadlak sa lalung kamatayan.
6.
Pitong taung walang tigil na ang "La Solidaridad" ay kusang nagpumilit na iniubos ang buong lakas niya, upang tamuhin natin ang mga matamo ng kaunting karapatan sa kabuhayan ng tao, at ¿ano ang inabot niyang pala sa mga pagud at panahung ginugol? Pangako, daya, alipusta at mapait na pagkamatay....
7.
Ngayong hapu na ang ating nag taas na kamay sa laging pag luhog; ngayong na namamaus na’t unti unting na wala ang sigaw ng ating mapanghan na tingig sa laging pag daing, ngayong inaagaw na halus ang ating hininga sa bangis ng hirap, aming itinayu ang yukong ulong a gawi na sa pag suko, at kumuhang lakas sa matibay na pananalig namin sa tunay na katuiran, na maimulat ang kaisipan ng aming mga kababayan at maipakitang malinaw sa kanila na ang salitang Inang Espana ay isang pag limang at hibo lamang, na maitutulad, sa basahang pangbalut sa tanikalang kaladkad; walang ina’t walang anak; wala kung di isang lahing lumulupig at isang lahing palulupig, isang bayang nagtatamasa at nabubusog sa di niya pagud at isang bayang nagpapagud sa di niya pinakikinabangan at ikinabubusog.
1.
From here on the other side of the wide ocean, under the bosom and protection of another land and other laws, to you, compatriots, is sent our first greeting, the first word written by our hand, the first sigh that leaves our breast, the first enunciation, too, of our lips... everything is to you.
2.
Receive it then, and truly savour it in your being, because it comes from our sincere heart, which beats with nothing but an intense love for the native land and a true compassion for her in the oppression she suffers.
3.
Readily our ears can hear your complaints; readily our eyes so often have the misfortune to see your singular oppression and cruel hardship; immediately and spontaneously there springs in our soul a great and exalted desire that you may rise up from your prostration and rouse your hearts from their deep and restful slumber, and thus bring to an end the heavy blows of pain and your woeful tribulations.
4.
Truly we also hoped, as a great number of compatriots believed, that only mother Spain has the right to give prosperity to this Katagalugan. But time passes; the follies accumulate, the faceless web of deceit that I repudiate, the unfulfilled promises have shattered our peaceful and trusting nature and made us realise that we must be the ones to act and create wealth and that we must hope and wait on our own strength to achieve our welfare.14
5.
What else is to be expected and desired? Over three hundred years suffering the heavy yoke of slavery, yet for a long time we did nothing but beseech and ask them for just a little consideration and a little mercy. And then what answers were seen in response to our supplications and pitifulness? None, except that we were sent into exile or even to our deaths.
6.
For seven years La Solidaridad worked incessantly and exhausted its whole strength in order that we might achieve some modest right to a human existence. And yet what was the result of the expended time and effort? Promises, deceit, scorn and bitter death....
7.
Now we are weary of raising our hands aloft in constant supplication; now the cry of our mournful voice in constant complaint is gradually ceasing; and now our breath has almost been taken away from us by the cruelty of our suffering; we raise our bowed heads, accustomed to being submissive, and drawing strength from our firm belief in true reason, we can open the minds of our fellow countrymen and show them clearly that the phrase Mother Spain is only a distraction and deceit that can be compared to a rag wrapped around encumbering shackles; that there is no mother and no child; that there is nothing else than a race that oppresses and a race that is oppressed; a people that tirelessly enriches and satiates itself and a people that is tired of deprivation and hunger.
____________________________________________
From this point onwards, the Tagalog text has not been located. The remainder of the editorial, as published in Spanish translation in Retana’s Archivo, was many years ago translated in turn into English by my father, Geoffrey Walter Richardson, and is as follows:
8.
Too well we know that this must cause great misgivings and fears, must give rise to a cruel persecution and all kinds of torments and sufferings for our compatriots there. But what do one, or five, or ten, or a hundred, signify in comparison with a million brothers? We firmly believe, moreover, that these abominations and vilenesses will come to us first from the arms of collaborators, as was already predicted by the wisest, most noble and most esteemed of the Tagalogs [José Rizal] when they notified him of the arrest of those who were exiled: "Weep, I tell them -- the son for the disgrace of the father, the father for the disgrace of the son, the brother for the brother -- but he who loves the country where he was born, and considers what is necessary to better it, should rejoice, because by this road alone can freedom now be attained."
9.
And now that we have shown our aim and purpose, we will not end these inadequate lines without sharing your lamentations. We see the truth, and in our hearts and breasts we have a great and deep desire that you help us in the publication and propaganda of Kalayaan, above all amongst the unfortunate people of the country, for the insults they suffer are the cause and motive of this publication.
10.
And if by chance they could not use it for any greater purpose, may it at least serve as a cloth to wipe the tears that fall from their eyes and the sweat that runs from their humbled brows.
Document B
1.
Narito’t aming ibabalita ang isang nangyaring dapat na isiping mahinahon ng lahat ng tagalog. Ito’y isang bagay na nakamamangha’t nakapupoot, at gayon ma’y siyang nangyayari sa araw-araw.
2.
Sa kagabihan ng ikadalawangpuo’t apat na araw ng Diciembreng nagdaan, ang teniente del barrio sa S. Francisco del Monte ay nasasabahay niya’t humahatul sa hablahang nangyari sa dalawang babai. Anopa’t niyang kasalukuyang gumaganap ng kaniyang katungkulan, dadating ang kura’t siya’y tinapatan sa bintana at saba’y na tinungayaw ng katakut-takut, na sa kapangitang lubha ng mga sinabi ay di namin maitala.
3.
Datapua’t di nagkasiya ito sa galit o lupit niya, marahil, kaya’t sunod-sunod na pinutukan ang teniente del barrio ng isang revolver na dala sa kamay. Niyang makita nito, na siya’y talagang papatayin, at naramdaman niyang sumayad sa noo niya ang ikatlong putok, kaniyang sinibasud ang inagaw ang revolver at katulong ng mga anak niya’t asawa kanilang ginapus, sapagka’t sa paraang ito lamang kanilang mapipigilan ang sa among na kabangisan.
4.
Sa ganitong anyo, sila’y inabutan ng mga hukom na galing sa Maynila, at agad agad na dinakip ang buong kamaganakan at mga kaibigan ng teniente del barrio, sampung bata’t matanda, babai’t lalaki. Ang cura’y tahimik na umui sa convento ng kaniyang mga kasamahan sa Maynila.
5.
Sa mga tanungan at usisaang nangyari ay lumitaw na ang isang babai ang lumalabas na may sala sa hatulan ay kalunya ng among. (¡ !)
6.
Tignan ngayon ng bayan ang kabaitan, kalinisan at kapakumbabaan ng mga pinupoon niyang kahalili ng Dios.
7.
At tignan din naman ang gawa ng nagaakay sa kaniya sa landas ng katuiran, na ang maglilingko’y ipinagtatangol at pinapagdurusa ang nilulupig nito. At salamat kung ito’y sukat na; malapit na mangyari, ayon sa mga alingawngaw at dating ugali, na ang teniente del barrio at ang anak na babaing nito, na nag ngangalan ng Pia, ay itapun ang isa sa ibang pulo, at ang isa sa iba; sapagka’t ito’y siyang kinakailangan sa mga ayaw papatay sa ama ng kalulua.
Madlangaway
1.
We will tell news here about an incident that all Tagalogs need to think about calmly. It is an astonishing and infuriating matter, and yet such things happen every day.
2.
On the evening of the twenty-fourth of December last, the barrio lieutenant in San Francisco del Monte was in his house adjudicating on a dispute between two women. Whilst he was thus engaged in his duty, the parish priest arrived at the window and shouted some fearful profanities mixed with harsh words that we cannot write.
3.
But then, seemingly unable to contain his anger or cruelty, he shot at the barrio lieutenant with a revolver he had been carrying in his hand. Seeing this, and believing that he would really be killed, and feeling the third shot graze his forehead, the barrio lieutenant lunged forward, grabbed the revolver and with the help of his children and wife tied the priest up, because this was the only way they could stop the ferocious father.
4.
At this moment, some justices of the peace arrived from Manila and immediately arrested the whole family and some friends of the barrio lieutenant, ten people, young and old, women and men. The priest quietly returned home to the convento of his confrères in Manila.
5.
As a result of questions and investigations, it was discovered that the woman who was found to be at fault in the dispute was the mistress of the master (¡!).
6.
Now the people can see the goodness, propriety and humility of the lords who are the representatives of God.
7.
And also to be seen is a duty to lead the people on the path of reason, to support and defend them and to punish whoever oppresses them. It would be good if this were all. But soon it will happen, according to rumour and previous custom, that the barrio lieutenant and his daughter, named Pia, will be deported, one to one island and one to another, because this is what is deemed necessary for those who do not want to kill the father of souls.
Madlangaway
Document C
Panaho’y matamis sa tinubuang Bayan1.
at pawang panglugod ang balang matanauan[?],
ang simoy sa parang ay panghatid buhay,
tapat ang pagirog, sulit ang mamatay.15
J. Rizal
Aling pagibig pa ang hihigit kaya
sa pagkadalisay at pagkadakila
gaya ng pagibig sa tinubuang lupa?
¿alin pagibig pa? wala na nga; wala.
2.
Ulitulitin mang basahin ng isip
at isa-isahing talastasing pilit
ang salita’t buhay na limbag at titik
ng sangtinakpan ito ang mababatid.
3.
¡Banal na pagibig! pagikaw ang nukal
sa tapat na puso ng sino't alin man,
imbi’t taong gubat maralita’t mangmang
nagiging dakila at iginagalang.
4.
Pagpupuring lubos ang palaging gawad
ng taong mahal sa Bayan niyang liyag
umawit, tumula, kumatha’t sumulat
kalakhan din niya'y isinisiwalat.
5.
Walang mahalagang hindi inihandog
ng may pusong mahal sa Bayan niyang irog
dugo, yaman, dunong, katiisa’t pagod,
buhay ma’y abuting magkalagot-lagot.
6.
¿Bakit? ¿alin ito na sakdal ng laki,
na hinahandugan ng buong pagkasi,
na sa lalung mahal nakapangyayari
at ginugugulan ng buhay na iwi?
7.
¡Ah! ito’y ang inang Bayang tinubuan
na siyang una’t tangi na kinamulatan
ng kawiliwiling liwanag ng araw
na nagbigay init sa lunong katawan.
8.
Sa kaniya ay utang ang unang paglangap
ng simoy ng hanging nagbibigay lunas
sa inis na puso na sisingap-singap
ng pinakadustang kanyang mga anak.
9.
Kalakip din nitong pagibig sa Bayan
lahat ng lalung mahal16
mula sa tuat aliw ng kasangulan
hangang sa katawa’y mapasa libingan.
10.
Ang nangakaraang panahun ng aliw
ang inaasahang araw na darating
ng pagkatimawa ng mga alipin
liban pa sa Bayan, ¿saan tatanghalin?
11.
At ang balang kahuy at ang balang sanga
ng parang niya't gubat na kaaya-aya
kung makita’y susagi sa alaala
ang ina’t ang giliw, lumipas na saya.
12.
Tubig niyang malinaw na anaki'y bubog
bukal sa batisang nagkalat sa bundok
malambot na huni ng matuling agus
nakaaaliw din sa pusung may lungkot.
13.
¡Sa aba ng mawalay sa tinubuang Bayan
gunita niya’y laguing sakbibi ng lumbay
walang alaala’t inaasam-asam
kung di ang makita'y ang lupa niyang mahal.
14.
Pati ng magdusa't sampung kamatayan
wari ay masarap kung dahil sa Bayan
at lalung maghirap, ¡oh! himalang bagay!
lalung pagirog pa ang sa kaniya'y alay.17
15.
Kung ang Bayang ito'y nasasapanganib
at kinakailangang siya’y ipagtankilik
ang anak, asawa, magulang, kapatid
sa isang tawag niya’y tatalikdang pilit.
16.
Dapua’t kung ang Baya’y ang Katagalugan
na nilapastangan at niyuyurakan
katuiran niya’t puri ng tagaibang Bayan,
ng tunay na bangis ng hayop sa parang,18
17.
¿Di gaano kaya ang paghihinagpis
ng pusung tagalog sa puring na lait?
at ¿aling kalooban na lalung tahimik
ang di pupukawin sa panghihimagsik?
18.
¿Saan magbubuhat ang panghihinayang19
sa paghihiganti’t gumugol ng buhay,
kung wala ding iba na kasasadlakan,
kung di ang lumagi sa kaalipinan?
19.
¿Kung ang pagkabaun niya’t pagkalugmok
sa lusak ng daya’t tunay na pagayop,
supil ng panghampas tanikalang gapos,
at luha na lamang ang pinaaagos?
20.
Sa anyo inyang ito’y ¿sino ang tutungha’y
na di aakayin sa gawang magdamdam?
pusong naglilipak sa pagkasukaban
ang hindi gumugol ng dugo at buhay.
21.
¿Mangyayari kaya, na ito’y malangap,
at hindi lingapin ng tunay na anak,
kung sa inang liig ay nasasayapak
ng mga kastilang gumanti ng hirap?
22.
¿Nasaan ang dangal ng mga tagalog?
¿nasaan ang dugong dapat na ibuhos?
Baya'y inaapi, ¿bakit di kumilos,
at natitilihang ito’y mapanood?
23.
Hayo na nga, kayo, kayong nangabuhay
sa pagasang lubos ng kaginhawahan,
at walang tinamo kung di kapaitan,
hayo na’t ibigin ang naabang Bayan.
24.
Kayong natuyan na, sa kapapasakit
ng dakilang hangad sa batis ng dibdib,
muling pabalungin, tunay na pagibig
kusang ibulalas sa Bayang piniit.
25.
Kayong nalagasan ng bunga’t bulaklak,
kahuy na sariwa, na nilanta’t sukat
ng balabalaki’t makapal na hirap
muling manariwa’t sa Baya'y lumiyag.
26.
Kayo mga pusong pilit inihapay
ng daya at bagsik ng ganid na asal,
ngayon ay magbangu’t nariyan ang Bayan,
nariya’t humihibik, mga anak siya’y antay.
27.
Kayong mga dukhang walang tanging palad,
kung di ang mabuhay sa dalita’t hirap,
ampunin ang Bayan, kung nasa ay lunas,
pagka’t ginhawa niya’y ginhawa ng lahat.
28.
Datapua’t ibigin ng lubos na lubos
sa lahat ng bagay itangi sa loob
at sa kalakhan niya’y dapat na iubos
ng malaking puso ang malaking linkod.
A.B.
Notes
1Gregoria de Jesus, "Mga Tala ng aking Buhay" in Julio Nakpil and the Philippine Revolution, with the autobiography of Gregoria de Jesus (Manila: Heirs of Julio Nakpil, 1964), p.162.
2In a memoir written in 1899, Antonino Guevara, who joined the KKK in early August 1896, also recalls believing at the time that "some 30,000" were "pledged to rise in arms". Antonino Guevara y Mendoza, History of One of the Initiators of the Filipino Revolution, translated from the Spanish by O.D. Corpuz (Manila: National Historical Institute, 1988), p.v.
3Santiago V. Alvarez, The Katipunan and the Revolution: the memoirs of a general, translated by Paula Carolina S. Malay (Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1992), p.11.
4Heraldo de Madrid, August 29, 1896. I am grateful to Roberto Blanco Andrés for sending me a copy of this item.
5Rolando M. Gripaldo, Liberty and Love: the political and ethical philosophy of Emilio Jacinto (Manila: De La Salle University Press, 2001), p.10.
6José Rizal, "Ang mga karampatan ng tao" (c.1891-2) in Escritos políticos e históricos (Manila: Comisión Nacional del Centenario de José Rizal, 1961), pp.293-4.
7Spanish translation by Juan Caro y Mora published under the title "Á los compatriotas" in Retana, Archivo, vol.III, pp.134-8 (Caro y Mora, an ardently pro-Spanish Creole, was at this time the Manila correspondent of the Heraldo de Madrid); a fragment was translated into English by James LeRoy, and this fragment in turn translated into Tagalog under the title "Sa mga Kababayan" by Virgilio S. Almario, Panitikan ng rebolusyon(g 1896) (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1997), p.159.
8Spanish translation by Juan Caro y Mora published under the title "Manifiesto" in Retana, Archivo, vol.III, pp.138-44; a slightly different, partial, Spanish translation by Epifanio de los Santos printed alongside [in parallel text format] a partial translation into English by Gregorio Nieva in Epifanio de los Santos, "Emilio Jacinto", Philippine Review, III:6 (June 1918), pp.419-20; translated/ reconstructed from Caro y Mora’s Spanish into Tagalog under the title "Pahayag" by Virgilio S. Almario, Panitikan ng rebolusyon(g 1896) (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1997), pp.160-3.
9Spanish translation by Juan Caro y Mora published under the title "Lo que deben saber y entender los indios" in Retana, Archivo, vol.III, pp.144-8; a different Spanish translation, by Epifanio de los Santos, published under the title "Lo que deben saber los Filipinos" in his "Andrés Bonifacio", Revista Filipina, II:11 (November 1917), p.64; English translation by Gregorio Nieva from De los Santos’s Spanish published under the title "What the Filipinos Should Know", Philippine Review, III:1-2 (January-February 1918), p.39; Tagalog version published by José P. Santos in Si Andres Bonifacio at ang Himagsikan (Manila: n.pub, 1935), pp.6-7; English translation by Teodoro A. Agoncillo from Santos’s Tagalog version published under the title "What the Filipinos Should Know" in The Writings and Trial of Andrés Bonifacio, translated by Teodoro A. Agoncillo with the collaboration of S. V. Epistola (Manila: Antonio J. Villegas; Manila Bonifacio Centennial Commission; University of the Philippines, 1963), pp. 2-3 –- as posted on this website.
10Spanish translation by Epifanio de los Santos published under the title "Amor a la patria" in his "Andrés Bonifacio", Revista Filipina, II: 11 (November 1917), pp.64-6; English translation by Gregorio Nieva from De los Santos’s Spanish published under the title "Love of Country", Philippine Review, III:1-2 (January-February 1918), pp.40-1; Tagalog version published by José P. Santos in Si Andres Bonifacio at ang Himagsikan (Manila: n.pub, 1935), pp.8-10; English translation by Teodoro A. Agoncillo from Santos’s Tagalog version published under the title "Love of Country" in The Writings and Trial of Andrés Bonifacio, as cited, pp. 5-8 –- as posted on this website.
11Heraldo de Madrid, August 29, 1896.
12Glenn Anthony May, Inventing a Hero: the posthumous re-creation of Andres Bonifacio (Quezon City: New Day, 1997), p.40.
13I am indebted to Glenn May for his detailed and judicious comments on this version of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan", and likewise on the letter of Andrés Bonifacio to Julio Nakpil described in the posting on this website dated January 10, 2006.
14As indicated in the body of this piece, the text of "Sa mga Kababayan" transcribed here corresponds very substantially with the Spanish translation published by Retana in 1897. The most evident disparity is in the second sentence of this paragraph, which could be rendered from the Retana version into English as "But time passes; the multiple follies and the unfulfilled promises have clarified and awakened our whole view of things, and made us realise that the blood of the Spaniards here or living in the Archipelago is the same blood as that of the Spaniards who live in Spain."
15These four lines are from the "Song of María Clara" in Chapter XXXIII of the Noli, and were presumably translated from the Spanish of the first edition -- José Rizal, Noli me tangere: novela tagala (Berlin: Berliner Buchdruckerei-Actien-Gesellschaft, 1887), p.119. The same lines are rendered in English by Soledad Lacson-Locsin as: "Sweet are the hours in one’s own land/ Where all is loved under the sun,/ Life is the breeze in her fields sweeping,/ Death is welcome, and love more caring!" José Rizal, Noli me tangere, translated by Ma. Soledad Lacson-Locsin, edited by Raul L. Locsin (Manila: Bookmark, 1996), p.141.
16When editing the poem, Jacinto deleted words from this line, but in his haste omitted to substitute other words in their stead, leaving the line conspicuously short and incomplete. In the version published by José P. Santos in his Si Andres Bonifacio at ang Himagsikan, the line reads "ang lahat ng lalung sa gunitay mahal".
17This fourteenth stanza is omitted from the Tagalog and English versions published in The Writings and Trial of Andres Bonifacio, presumably due to a simple error. It is however included in the Spanish and English translations that appeared in 1917 –8 and (in a virtually identical form to here) in the Tagalog version published by Santos in 1935.
18As indicated in the body of this piece, the text of "Pagibig" transcribed here does not differ substantially from the Santos version, as readers can verify by following the link to Si Andres Bonifacio at ang Himagsikan on this site. But there are minor differences in many stanzas, and significant differences in this sixteenth stanza, the twenty-first and the twenty-sixth. The final, twenty-eighth stanza is completely different in the Santos version. It is likely that the text transcribed by Santos, if not the final published version, is at least a later version than the one transcribed here.
19The text published by Santos (and later Agoncillo) includes question marks at four points where words could not be deciphered. The version transcribed here enables two of these gaps to be filled with reasonable certainty – here in stanza 18, where the final word of the first line is "paghihinayang", and in stanza 27, where the final word of the first line is "palad". The other uncertainties (in stanzas 26 and 28) cannot be resolved because the versions diverge at these two points.
<< Home