Because he had no passport he could only attend lectures, but could not regularly matriculate. He lived in one of the student boarding houses, with a number of law students, and when he was proposed for membership in the Chess Club he was registered in the Club books as being a student of law like the men who proposed him. These Chess Club gatherings were quite a feature of the town, being held in the large saloons with several hundred people present, and the contests of skill were eagerly watched by shrewd and competent judges. Rizal was a clever player, and left something of a record among the experts. The following lines were written by Rizal in a letter home while he was a student in Germany: To the Flowers of Heidelberg (translation by Charles Derbyshire) Go to my native land, go, foreign flowers, Sown by the traveler on his way; And there beneath its azure sky, Where all of my affections lie; There from the weary pilgrim say, What faith is his in that land of ours! Go there and tell how when the dawn, Her early light diffusing, Your petals first flung open wide; His steps beside chill Neckar drawn, You see him silent by your side, Upon its Spring perennial musing. Saw how when morning's light, All your fragrance stealing, Whispers to you as in mirth Playful songs of love's delight, He, too, murmurs his love's feeling In the tongue he learned at birth. That when the sun on Koenigstuhl's height Pours out its golden flood, And with its slowly warming light Gives life vale and grove and wood, He greets that sun, here only upraising, Which in his native land is at its zenith blazing. And tell there of that day he stood, Near to a ruin'd castle gray, By Neckar's banks, or shady wood, And pluck'd you from beside the way; Tell, too, the tale to you addressed, And how with tender care, Your bending leaves he press'd 'Twixt pages of some volume rare. Bear then, O flowers, love's message bear; My love to all the lov'd ones there, Peace to my country--fruitful land-- Faith whereon its sons may stand, And virtue for its daughters' care; All those beloved creatures greet, That still around home's altar meet. And when you come unto its shore, This kiss I now on you bestow, Fling where the winged breezes blow; That borne on them it may hover o'er All that I love, esteem, and adore. But though, O flowers, you come unto that land, And still perchance your colors hold; So far from this heroic strand, Whose soil first bade your life unfold, Still here your fragrance will expand; Your soul that never quits the earth Whose light smiled on you at your birth.