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,
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if I touch
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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
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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,
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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