“If You Forget Me” by Pablo Neruda.

The first time I read this poem I really loved it. My first interpretation of it was about love between a man and a woman. This man was so in love that he was afraid of getting hurt. So, if she stopped loving him, he would be able to do the same to not get hurt. But then, when I read about the author´s life and I read the poem again, I had a different interpretation of it.
If we know that Pablo Neruda wrote this poem when he was exiled from his country (Chile), then “If You Forget Me” has a different meaning and we can say that it is not about love between two people, but love between a person and his homeland and roots. In spite of the fact that he really loves his country, if his country “forgets” him, he will already have forgotten it.
Perhaps, one of the things that may confuse us is the pronoun “you” that he uses to refer to his country. But I also think that this poem can have different meanings according to what we know about the context.
Click HERE to read the poem.

Butterfly