Trivia: El Fili Chapter 39

In the final chapter of Jose Rizal's El Filibusterismo, Padre Florentino refers to a German poet while talking about God and the state of the Filipinos.

In page 407 of the Ma. Soledad Lacson-Locsin translation of the El Fili (Bookmark, 1996), Padre Florentino says:

"...I know that His arm has never failed anyone when, trampled by justice and drained of all recourse, the oppressed takes the sword and fights for his home, for his woman, for his children, for his inalienable rights that, as the German poet says, shine unshakeable and secure there in the heavens like the eternal stars themselves! No, God who is justice, cannot abandon His own cause, the cause of freedom without which no justice is possible!"

If you're wondering who the German poet is, it's Friedrich Schiller who wrote the drama William Tell (1804?). In Scene 2 of Act II, Werner Stauffacher rallies his countrymen with (here's a partial snippet):

No, there's a limit to the tyrant's power,
When the oppressed can find no justice, when
The burden grows unbearable--he reaches
With hopeful courage up unto the heavens
And seizes hither his eternal rights,
Which hang above, inalienable
And indestructible as stars themselves--
...

Did you enjoy that bit of trivia related to the last chapter of El Filibusterismo (by Jose Rizal)?

Here's another bit of trivia: The last chapter of Rizal's El Fili, just like the final chapter of the Noli Me Tangere, has no title. Believe it, or don't. ;-)

[ First posted on 01/12/2006 by Manuel Viloria ]