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.