Yesterday When I Was Young

Yesterday when I was young

the taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue.

I teased at life as if it were a foolish game,

the way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame.

The thousand dreams I dreamed,

the splendid things I planned

I always built to last on weak and shifting sand.

I lived by night and shunned the naked light of the day

and only now I see how the years ran away.

Yesterday when I was young

so many happy songs were waiting to be sung,

so many wayward pleasures lay in store for me

and so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see.

I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out,

I never stopped to think what life was all about

and every conversation I can now recall

concerned itself with me and nothing else at all.

Yesterday, the moon was blue,

And every crazy day, brought something new to do,

I used my magic age, as if it were a wand,

And never saw the waste, and the emptiness beyond

The game of love I played, with arrogance and pride,

And every flame I lit, too quickly, quickly died,

The friends I made, all seemed somehow to drift away,

And only I am left, on stage to end the play

There are so many songs in me that won't be sung,

I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue.

The time has come for me to pay for yesterday

when I was young.

Yesterday when I was young

so many happy songs were waiting to be sung,

so many wayward pleasures lay in store for me

and so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see.