Florante at Laura is an 1838 awit written by Tagalog poet Francisco Balagtas. The story was dedicated to his former sweetheart María Asunción Rivera, whom he nicknamed "M.A.R." and Selya in Kay Selya ("For Celia"). The story is loosely based on Balagtas' own biography. He wrote the epic during his imprisonment in Manila in c. 1835 – c. 1836. Source: Wikipedia (en)