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