You said: “I’ll go to another country, go to another shore,

You said: “I will go hence to another land,

find another city better than this one.

I will betake me to another sea.

Whatever I try to do is fated to turn out wrong

A better place than this may well be found.

and my heart lies buried like something dead.

All my endeavours are foredoomed to fail,

How long can I let my mind moulder in this place?

and as though dead my heart is sepulchred.

Wherever I turn, wherever I look,

How long shall this corrosion sap my brain?

I see the black ruins of my life, here,

On every side — whichever way I look —

where I’ve spent so many years, wasted them, destroyed them totally.”

dark ruins of my life confront me here

where I have spent and wrecked so many years.”

You won’t find a new country, won’t find another shore.

This city will always pursue you.

You shall not find new places; other seas

You’ll walk the same streets, grow old

you shall not find. The place shall follow you.

in the same neighborhoods, turn gray in these same houses.

And you shall walk the same familiar streets,

You’ll always end up in this city. Don’t hope for things elsewhere:

and you shall age in the same neighbourhood,

there’s no ship for you, there’s no road.

and whiten in these same houses. Ever this place

Now that you’ve wasted your life here, in this small corner,

shall you arrive at. There is neither ship,

you’ve destroyed it everywhere in the world.

nor road, for you, to bring you otherwhere.

As here, in this small nook, you wrecked your life,

even so you spoilt it over all the earth.