IF YOU FORGET ME

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch ,
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the the wrinkiled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas lights, light, metals,
were little boats that
toward those isles of yours that waits for me.


Well, now,
İf little by little you stop loving me
I shal stop loving you little by little.
If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me .
for I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think it long and mad
the wind of banners that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember that on that day,
at that hour
I shall lift my arms and my roots will set off
to seek an other land.

But i if each day
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,.
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live,
it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.


Pablo Neruda