If Ever My Memory Visits You I I Poem by Martins Akhoeneto

If ever memory should call my name,
Let not its footsteps find you steeped in night;
But meet it where the sun makes soft its claim,
And ordinary hours are warm with light.

Perhaps when morning steam ascends your cup,
Or homeward paths receive your wandering feet;
Perhaps some stray song softly lifts you up,
And makes a vanished tenderness complete.

Then think not that remembrance bids you stay,
Nor that the past would turn your feet behind;
Let love lie gently where it chose to lay,
A quiet truth no passing years can blind.

For once, within the measure of your years,
You were loved without condition, without doubt or fear.