great.

great

Shed your tears, my motherland: let all your sorrow flow
Over the hapless fate of your hapless soil
The flag that is your symbol is shrouded by the alien flag
Even your inherited language is demeaned by another language;
Thus was the day when you were robbed of freedom
When Manila was seized on the twenty-third of August.

Shed your tears, while they gloatingly celebrate
On the graves of the downtrodden, the magnates are in revelry
You are like Huli, the enslaved debt peon
You are like Sisa, demented by suffering
Without strength to defend, without courage to fight
Wailing while being slaughtered, lamenting while being robbed.

Shed your tears over the heaps of misfortune
That inflict pain on you, that fatten the aliens
All your riches are wantonly squandered
All your freedoms quashed in one fell swoop
Behold your land, an alien army is guarding
Behold your seas, an alien ship is hovering.

Shed your tears if in your heart the purpose has waned
If the sun in your sky is always in twilight
If the waves of the sea have ceased to surge
If the volcanoes in your breast do not rage
If no one stands vigil on the eve of the uprising
Shed, oh shed your tears if your freedom lies in state.

The day will come when your tears run dry
The day will come when tears no longer flow from your swollen eyes
But fire, fire the color of blood
While your blood will be boiling steel
You shall shout with full courage in the flames of a thousand torches
And the old chains you shall destroy with gunfire.