Friday, June 28, 2013

If You Forgot Me by Pablo Neruda

My ferns, blocking the heat and shading the carport.


IF YOU FORGOT ME
By Pablo Neruda

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 wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall 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 another land.

But
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.       
-------------------------------------------

Daylily in my front yard.
 
My favorite Rose.
 

2 comments:

Kelly said...

I'm afraid my dogs have killed most of my daylilies. It's one of their favorite spots to beat the heat.

erin said...

what is this alchemy of love? i know it. i've been a part of it rising, answering, and going away. and lasting too. i know it. how odd it is. how strange. how essential though, as though love itself is the engine of life that feeds off the energy of, not one or two separate, but two who agree to resonate together.

i didn't know this poem of Neruda's and yet i've known this poem:)

your ferns and lilies and roses are beautiful. i just stopped on my run and ate a wild strawberry. what an incomprehensible and lucky world we live in.

xo
erin