Lyrics - Yesterday When I Was Young by Kretzmer Herbert

YESTERDAY
WHEN
I
WAS
YOUNGYesterday when
I was youngthe 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 dayand only now
I see how the years ran away.
Yesterday when
I was youngso many drinking songs were waiting to be sung,so many wayward pleasures lay in store for meand 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 aboutand every conversation
I can now recallconcerned itself with me and nothing else at all.
Yesterday the moon was blueand every crazy day brought something new to do.
I used my magic age as if itwere a wandand never saw the waste and emptiness beyond.
The g ame of love
I played with arrogance and prideand every flame
I lit too quickly quickly died.
The friedns
I made all seemed somehow to drift awayand 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. -
Herbert
Kretzmer

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