If You Forget me - Pablo Neruda (An Inspiration poem) | Powerful Life Poetry

Writer: Pablo Neruda
Poem: If You Forget me
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The poem explores the complexities of love and loss through the speaker's reflections on the world around them. The speaker's connection to the natural world serves as a metaphor for their emotional experiences. When their lover's love wanes, the speaker will gradually let go of their own love. However, if their lover remains committed, the speaker's love will endure and grow stronger.

Transcript -
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 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.