| I want you to know | |
| one thing. | |
| | |
| You know how this is: | |
| if I look | |
| at the crystal moon, at the red branch | 5 |
| of the slow autumn at my window, | |
| if I touch | |
| near the fire | |
| the impalpable ash | |
| or the wrinkled body of the log, | 10 |
| everything carries me to you, | |
| as if everything that exists, | |
| aromas, light, metals, | |
| were little boats | |
| that sail | 15 |
| 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 | 20 |
| 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 | 25 |
| that passes through my life, | |
| and you decide | |
| to leave me at the shore | |
| of the heart where I have roots, | |
| remember | 30 |
| that on that day, | |
| at that hour, | |
| I shall lift my arms | |
| and my roots will set off | |
| to seek another land. | 35 |
| | |
| But | |
| if each day, | |
| each hour, | |
| you feel that you are destined for me | |
| with implacable sweetness, | 40 |
| 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, | 45 |
| my love feeds on your love, beloved, | |
| and as long as you live it will be in your arms | |
| without leaving mine | |
