"If You Forget Me" by Pablo Neruda

 

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.

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

Poem Video👇

https://youtu.be/EClT9wNQSvI

Who wrote the poem "If You Forget Me"?

Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973)

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet and politician who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He wrote in various styles, including surrealist poems and passionate love poems. After Neruda experienced Spanish Civil War as a diplomat in Spain, he became a devoted Communist for the rest of his life. Neruda is often called one of the greatest poets of the 20^th century.

 

"If You Forget Me" explanation

In the poem, the speaker talks to his lover about what will happen if her love fades away. Neruda, then Communist senator in Chile, was exiled from his country for 3 years after Communism was banned in 1948. This poem was most likely written while the poet was in exile. Neruda was married to Argentinian writer Delia del Carril at the time, but critics believe the poem was written to Neruda’s lover, Matilde Urrutia, a Chilean singer, whom he met during the period of exile and who would become his future wife. Some interpret that the poem was not written to his lover but to his country, warning her not to forget him during his exile.