Yesterday when I was young
The taste of love 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 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 ev'ry conversation I can now recall
Concerned itself with me, and nothing else at all.
Yesterday the moon was blue,
And ev'ry crazy day brought something new to do,
I used my magic age as if it were a wand,
And never saw the waste and emptiness beyond.
The game of love I played with arrogance and pride,
And ev'ry 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.