04-012 [Misc.]
1878.11.27 Sta. Cruz, Manila
From: Jose Rizal
To: Enrique Lete y Cornell
Rizal is studying painting, solfeggio, piano, singing, and fencing.
* * *
Sta. Cruz, Manila
27 November 1878
MR. ENRIQUE LETE Y CORNELL
MY VERY DEAR AND NEVER-FORGOTTEN ENRIQUE,
I have just received your letter and I am informed of its contents. Though I do not see you, it seems to me I see you grown up like a ball with two feet.
I received the letter to which you refer, but the reply undoubtedly must have been lost. The weights cost P3 1/2; but if you want mine, which are in Calamba, that do not cost more than P3 1/8, I shall give them to you. It seems to me that you will not be so bad that you would want to deprive me of mine, though I am too good to give them to you.
The bobbin, my son, is doubtful. Do not expect the exchange, because yours will not be useful to my sisters. As for me, I would accept the exchange.
Mariano Catigbac[1] ought to have been married day before yesterday to… But you?
I continue studying painting, I do heads from the natural in oil. I have an ambition to become a landscape painter. I am among corpses and human bones having become inhuman, a quack;[2]formerly I was very finical. My hand is trembling for I have just played moro moro,[3]for you must know that I aspire to become a sort of swordsman.
For a month and a half I studied solfeggio, piano, and singing. If you hear me sing, you would say that you were in Spain, for you would hear the braying of an ass.[4]
Farewell. Command your friend who loves you and my compliments to your whole family, though I do not have the pleasure to know them.
J. RIZAL
[1] Mariano Catigbac was Rizal’s friend and brother of Miss Segunda Catigbac, a student at Concordia College, Manila, with whom Rizal fell in love. Catigbac married Miss Isabel Macarandang.
[2] Rizal was already a first-year student and at the same time was studying painting and fencing.
[3]Moro-moro is the common name given to popular dramas where there is plenty of sword battles between Muslims and Christians.
[4] This paragraph, as well as the first one, reveals Rizal’s sense of humor.