If I Should Fade Before the Dawn

To all those who wait across seas, I write to you tonight, Dreaming of long fields with cold frosted white. 

How fare the farms, the orchard trees? 

Do rivers flow quiet still with ease? 

Can you hear the children laugh, the voices sing, And tell me, does winter's breath already sting? 

I see you often in the night, 

Your face half-hidden, turning to me, veiled in moonlight. 

The kettle hums, the table's spread, 

Your laughter ringing through my head. 

The cows mooing down the lane, 

Your voice that calls me home again. 

As the days grow short, we laugh a little, sing a song, 

To hide the nights that stretch too long. 

A flute somewhere distant hums, the fire burning low, 

And still the guns outside never do they stop staying aglow.

The earth is heavy, damp with rain, 

It drinks our hope and feeds off our pain. 

If I should fade before the dawn, 

Do not believe when they say I am gone. Come find me where the blackbirds rest, Or folded in the twilight's breast. 

Hear me then where the still bells ring, Or in the hush of sparrows' wing. 

If I should rise and walk once more, 

I'll lay my pack beside the door. 

If I should fall, then do not fear, 

My steps still draw forever near. 

And if the gates creak, the floors bend, 

All this distance will forever find its end. 

If I should vanish from in front of your eyes, 

Do not care to remember me beneath the skies, 

Let your heart mend, let life renew,

Yet I shall hold you to this: have my elderly mother with you. 

Know every thought I had was yours, 

Through battle's roar and cannon's scores. 

And if I reach your gate once more, 

Whichever fate the stars have shown, 

Believe, my love, I am already on my way home