The Life That I Have

By Leo Marks

Violette Szabo

English cryptographer Leo Marks wrote these beautiful verses in 1943, just after the death of his girlfriend, Ruth, in a plane crash in Canada. Because it was so obscure, the poem was later used to encrypt messages between Allied spies in France, including Violette Szabo, the heroic British agent who was later captured and killed by the Nazis.

The life that I have

Is all that I have

And the life that I have

Is yours.

The love that I have

Of the life that I have

Is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have

A rest I shall have

Yet death will be but a pause.

For the peace of my years

In the long green grass

Will be yours and yours and yours.