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Yesterday when I was young |
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the taste of life was sweet like rain upon my tongue, |
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I teased at life as if it were a foolish game |
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the way an evening breeze would tease a candle flame, |
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The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned |
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I always built to last on weak and shifting sand, |
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I lived by night and shunned the naked light of day |
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and only now I see how the years have run away |
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Yesterday when I was young |
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there were so many songs that waited to be sung, |
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So many wild pleasures that lay in store for me |
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and so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see, |
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I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out and |
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I never stopped to think what life was all about, |
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and every conversation that I can recall |
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concerned itself with me, and nothing else at all. |
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Yesterday the moon was blue |
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and every crazy day brought something new to do, |
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and I used my magic age as if it were a wand |
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and never saw the waste and emptiness beyond, |
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The game of love I played with arrogance and pride |
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and every flame I lit so quickly, quickly died |
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the friends I made all seemed, somehow, to drift away |
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and only I am left on stage to end the play. |
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Yesterday when I was young |
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there were so many songs that waited to be sung, |
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So many wild pleasures lay in store for me |
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and so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see, |
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There are so many songs in me that won't be sung |
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cause I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue |
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And the time has come for me to pay for yesterday |
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When I was young. |