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, alas,

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 every conversation I can now

recall concerned itself with me,

and nothing else at all.

Interlude

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,

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.