The line “I love you because I love you” appears in many poems I discovered relatively late. 

I wrote this poem at 18, still learning English and having read only poems from my syllabus. I wrote it for a girl—an Anglo-Indian—who later introduced me to English literature by lending me Thomas Hardy's Desperate Remedies.

I specifically mentioned Anglo-Indian because, at that time, English was spoken only a little in those families' conversations.

I loved that girl even before I was formally introduced to her, and I continued to love her after she died of blood cancer shortly thereafter. 

I considered it a childish poem because she said it was childish when I wrote it in my handwriting and presented it to her. 

I still feel it’s childish, so it's not included in my poetry collections.

Here it goes -

I love you because I love you

not because you are the most beautiful

not because you are adorable

not because you are the most sensuous

the sexiest girl amongst all I know

not because you look cute

not because you are the best girl

not because I am a fool

no darling 

I love you because I love you

because I feel alive with you

because you are always present 

even in your absence 

because it is the most alarming aspect 

of an experience I longed for and 

because your absence grows more inescapable

because I've loved you from a distance 

because I've loved you 

when all went blank around me

because I swim in that murky water day after day

feeling your touch on my right shoulder 

I don’t know why I love you 

never ask why I love you 

because so far, I've no answer

I can only say to you

I love you because I love you