Yesterday When I Was Young Lyrics

Yesterday when I was young
M7 M7
The taste of love 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--
M7 M7
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 ran away.
Yesterday when I was young,
M7 M7
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,
M7 M7
I never stopped to think what life was all about;
And ev'ry conversation I can now recall
Concerned itself with me, and nothing else at all.
Yesterday the moon was blue,
M7 M7
And ev'ry crazy day brought something new to do,
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,
M7 M7
And ev'ry flame I lit too quickly, quickly died;
The friends 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,
M7
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue;
The time has come for me to pay for yesterday
(N.C.) Em Am Em
When I was young.