CHARLES AZNAVOUR b.1924

YESTERDAY WHEN I WAS YOUNG

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 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

Concerned itself with me, me and nothing else at all.

Yesterday the moon was blue

And every 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

And every 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,

I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue,

The time has come for me to pay for yesterday 

When I was young.

Born Shahnour Varinag Aznavourian, this French-Armenian singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat wrote more than 1,200 songs and sold more than 180,000,000 records.

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