February 1886

[26?] Heidelberg

(?) February 1886

MY DEAR PARENTS AND BROTHERS,

I hope that you have received my previous letter and you are enjoying good health, which is ever my constant desire.

For some 13 days now I’ve been attending the clinic for eye diseases (Augen Klinik) in this city under the direction of another famous oculist called Otto Becker. He is not as famous nor is he such a great surgeon as Dr. de Wecker of Paris; but in Germany he enjoys much renown and he has written many books. At the beginning I hardly understood a few words, for German is very difficult to follow on account of its unusual construction, but now I’m beginning to understand the words and I expect to be able to speak it fairly well within six months. Here we don’t perform so many operation as in Paris: The 24,000 inhabitants of this city cannot give so many patients, even if there is only one clinic. Paris, they say, has 2,000,000 inhabitants, but the truth is it has also very many oculists. When I shall know enough of the great advancement of German science and I shall be able to speak German somewhat perfectly, I intend to go to London or return to Paris which is the intellectual city par excellence, where… continually boils, and study a little with my first professor who had advised me to go back to him and I had promised him that I would do so.

Recently on the occasion of the arrival of a German poet, very much beloved in this city, they illuminated the castle with fireworks. Don’t think that it is like the fireworks there on feast days. Here they discharge some 15 or 16 rockets, gal lights, and no firecrackers; and with red light burning inside the ruins in such a way that only the glow is seen and not the flames, the walls, big towers, corridors, and all that remained of the ruined castle are revealed by silhouettes, now by direct illumination. It is beautiful to see in the midst of the darkness those grandiose ruins all red and black with neither flames nor lighters visible, and all were simultaneously illuminated… [illegible] … I say that almost always for there are also others: …the students with lighted torches went around the streets on the occasion of the anniversary of the Elector. I don’t know exactly what it was about for I was not able to understand well the long explanation the maid has just given me this morning.

Last Sunday I visited the interior of the castle, that is, the part… [illegible]. An old woman, tall, erect, serious, and with a sad voice, was my guide. She seems to be the shadow of the ruins or some witch who dwells in these somber and deserted places. All the walls are dismantled, the statues are mutilated, the arches cracked; ivy grows everywhere. The old woman recited in a sad and grave voice, pointing out the various places: “This is the hall of the pages, here they played games; there the waiting room; further on is the library, adjoining it is the study room with its big chimney full of drawings. The audience hall, the hall of justice, the big dining room, the hall of the English in which was held the wedding of some princes of Great Britain. The kitchen where they roasted a whole ox with the immense hearth under the high and monumental chimney used for it still preserved. The jail, the octagonal tower, etc., etc.” Sometimes one goes through dark, narrow, low corridors, going up and down little stairways one reaches a large hall whose roof is supported by massive arches: now and then a dormer window lets in some light to expose the dismal and ruinous state of the old palace of the Counts of the Palatinate some of whom became emperors. At times a small door opens on one side of the corridor into a dark and humid room—it is the jail; sometimes it is the room of the warden maybe; sometimes it is a little spiral stairway that gets lost above among the ruins and below in the shadows of the underground. There are two huge casks for wine in this castle—the larger one is thirteen paces long by eleven in width and holds, according to what they say, 230,000 bottles of wine, which seems to me probable for on top of it even five pairs can dance very easily. In the museum of curiosities of the castle are the pictures of all those who belong to the noble house: Women and men and even some who do not, like those of the most illustrious citizens who lived, were born in Heidelberg as Voss,[1] Melanchton.[2] There I saw pictures of Luther and his wife Catarina de Poca and the ring that was used in their wedding, which has this shape more or less [Drawing] The death-mask of Kotzebue showing his wound and that of his assassin, the student Sand, who was beheaded at Mannheim. His hair and blood are preserved. I saw also a letter of Marshal Ney, a passport signed by Louis XVI in the last sad days of his reign and many more autographs more or less complete, more or less important. Among the pictures there is a pair that ought to be mentioned—they are two pictures of a noblewoman belonging to a noble family that represents her youth and old age. Her picture when she was young shows her to be a serene beauty, winsome, ingenuous, and tender; that of her old age, is of a witch that reminded me of the grotesque description of an old woman in the story of two friends, one of the awits[3] of Tuason of Pasig.[4] There also are the old images only before perhaps the proud and cruel elector took off his hat and knelt, maybe after ordering the death of some unfortunate man. Today nobody takes off his hat before them, and the humblest man, the son perhaps of a slave of the late lord, passes by, examines them curiously, and partly continues on his way.

Tomorrow I am going to change my residence and move to No. 12, Ludwigsplatz, near the university. The room alone with service, light, and heating costs me eight pesos a month or 32 marks, each mark is worth 2 reales fuertes. If we were in the midst of winter, it would cost me more for I would have to spend for the heating. I shall eat at the restaurant during the day and at night take supper in my room in German style, that is, a cup of tea, bread, and butter. I believe that in the midst of winter, it [would] cost me more for I would have lodging until the end of April when I expect to receive my monthly allowance.

I spend half of the day in the study of German and the other half in the diseases of the eye. Twice a week I go to the bierbraurei, or beerhall, to speak German with my student friends.

Three times I have gone to see their duels at Hirschgasse and I have witnessed from 20 to 25 of them, each time 7, 8, or 9 fight and several times the duels were bloody. One that I saw received as many as six wounds during the duel; sometimes they are not wounded. They fight only among themselves, corporation against corporation, many times without any motive, for those who choose the adversaries are the sponsors; it is just to test bravery, according to them. There are five[5] “Studentencorps” [Stdentenverbindung Fraternities?] here and they are Vandalia[, Guestfalia Guestphalia], Saxoborussia [Saxo-Borussia], Renania [Rhenania], and Swabia [Suevia] and their respective caps[6] are red, green, white, blue, and yellow. Don’t think that I belong to any of these corporations; I would need to stay at least one year, for they require six months trial. The Swabians are my friends.

It has been very cold here and everywhere I see only ice forming capricious figures, stalactites, of crystal, rocks, on which the rays of the sun play, producing most beautiful colors.

I wish you to keep well and healthy and that we may see each other soon, which will be absolutely next year. Regards to all who will remember me.

Your son and brothers,

RIZAL

01-145 [Family]