Wait for me and I’ll return,

Only wait very hard. 

Wait as you’re filled with sorrow as you watch the yellow rain. 

Wait as the wind sweeps the snowdrift. 

Wait in the sweltering heat. 

Wait when others have stopped waiting,

Forgetting 

their yesteryears. 

Wait even when from afar no letters come to you. 

Wait even when others are tired of waiting. 

Wait even when my family think I am no more,

And when friends sit around the fire drinking to my memory. 

Wait, and do not hurry to drink to my memory too. 

Wait 

–

for I’ll return. 

Defying every death,

And let those who do not wait say that I was lucky. 

They will never understand that in the midst of death,

You, with your waiting, saved me. 

Only you and I will know how I survived

–

Because you waited as no one else would.