Yesterday When I Was Young Lyrics

Yesterday When I Was Young lyrics

Yesterday When I Was Young
Herbert Kretzmer


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 g ame,
the way the evening breeze may tease a
candle fl ame.
The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I
planned
I always built alas 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 drinking 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 itwere a wand
and never
saw the waste and emptiness beyond.
The g ame of love I played with
arrogance and pride
and every flame I lit too quickly quickly died.
The
friedns 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.