Did young Rizal really write poem for children?By Ambeth R.
Ocampo Philippine Daily Inquirer IN 1892, Jose Rizal began a new
novel in Tagalog. He realized that in order to reach a wider
readership in his country, he had to write in his native tongue.
During this time of exile in Hong Kong, his elder brother,
Paciano, had completed a translation of the “Noli Me Tangere”
from the original Spanish into Tagalog that was corrected and
finalized by Rizal. Envisioned as a popular edition with
illustrations by Juan Luna, this book was never to be. The
original manuscript translation by Paciano has since been
missing. Nevertheless, Rizal completed a chapter of his
satirical Tagalog novel and gave it the title “Makamisa” (After
the Mass), but unfortunately he did not have the energy to
complete it. He stopped writing in Tagalog and began anew in
Spanish. The drafts of this work were first published in 1993 in
my book “Makamisa: The Search for Rizal’s Third Novel.” Rizal
spoke and wrote in Tagalog fluently, but he was u