my last farewell

My Last Farewell
(Mi Ultimo Adios)

Farewell, dear fatherland, clime the sun caress’d,
Peal of the Orient seas, our Eden lost!
Gladly now I go to give thee this faded life’s best,
And were it brighter, fresher, or more blest,
Still would I give three, not count the cost.

On the field of battle, ‘mid the frenzy of fight,
Others have given their lives, without doubt or beed;
The place not matters—cypress or laurel or lily white,
Scafold or open plain, combat or martyrdom’s plight,
‘Tis ever the same, to serve our home and country’s need.

I die just when I see the dawn break
Though the gloom of night, to herald the day;
And if color is lacking my blood thy shalt take,
Pour’d out at need for they dear sake,
To dye with its crimson the waking ray.

My dreams, when life first opened to me,
My dreams when the hopes of youth beat high,
Were to see thy lov’d face, O gem of the Orient sea,
From gloom and grief, from care and sorrow free;
No blush on thy brow, no tear in thine eyes.

Dream of my life, my living and burning desire,
All hail! Crisis the soul that is now to take fight;
All hail! And sweet it is for thee to expire;
To die for thy sake, that thou may’st aspire;
And sleep in thy blossom eternity’s long night.

If over my grave some day thou seest grow,
In the grassy sod, a humble flower,
Draw to thy lips and kiss my soul so,
While I feel in my brow in the cold tomb below
The tough of thy tenderness, thy breath’s warm power.

Let the moon beam over me soft and serene,
Let the dawn shed over me its radiant flashes,
Let the wind sad lament over me keen;
And if on my cross a bird should be seen,
Let it thrill there is hymn of peace to my aches.

Let the sun draw vapos up to the sky,
And heavenward in purity bear my tardy protest;
Let some kind soul o’er my untimely fate sigh,
And in the still evening a prayer be lifted on high
From there, O my country, that in God I may rest.

Pray for all those that hapless