Yesterday When I Was Young

"Yesterday when I was young 

The taste of life was sweet

Like rain upon my tongue 

I teased at life as if it were a foolish game

The way an evening breeze

Would 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 have run away

Yesterday when I was young

There were so many songs

That waited to be sung

So many wild pleasures

That 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

And I never stopped to think

What life was all about

And every conversation that I can recall

Concerned itself with me

And nothing else at all

Yesterday the moon was blue

And every crazy day

Brought something new to do

And 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 every flame I lit 

So quickly quickly died

The friends I made all seemed

Somehow to drift away

And only I am left

On stage to end the play

Yesterday when I was young

There were so many songs

That waited to be sung

So many wild pleasures

Lay in store for me

And so much pain

My dazzled eyes refused to see

There are so many songs

In me that won't be sung

'Cause I feel the bitter taste

Of tears upon my tongue

And the time has come for me

To pay for yesterday

When I was young."