If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say, "I love her for her smile -- her look -- her way Of speaking gently, -- for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day" -- For these things in themselves, Beloved, may Be changed, or change for thee -- and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry: A creature might forget to weep, who bore Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby! But love me for love's sake, that evermore Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.
Someone would like to have you for her child but you are mine. Someone would like to rear you on a costly mat but you are mine. Someone would like to place you on a camel blanket but you are mine. I have you to rear on a torn old mat. Someone would like to have you as her child but you are mine.
NOTE: I have no specific author or translator information for this poem. (The former may not be surprising as it may be lost to history.) At any rate, my source is Classic Poems to Read Aloud, an anthology selected by James Berry (1995; Kingfisher Publications,) and it was titled “Lullaby.” That book cites a Cambridge University Press volume entitled African Poetry, edited by Ulli Beier, as its source.
