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

You said, “I will go to another place, to another shore.

find another city better than this one.

Another city can be found that’s better than this.

Whatever I try to do is fated to turn out wrong

All that I struggle for is doomed, condemned to failure;

and my heart lies buried like something dead.

and my heart is like a corpse interred.

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

How long will my mind stagger under this misery?

Wherever I turn, wherever I look,

Wherever I turn, wherever I look

I see the black ruins of my life, here,

I see the blackened ruins of my life,

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

which for years on end I squandered and wrecked and ravaged”.

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

You will find no other place, no other shores.

This city will always pursue you.

This city will possess you, and you’ll wander the same

You’ll walk the same streets, grow old

streets. In these same neighborhoods you’ll grow old;

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

in these same houses you’ll turn gray.

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

Always you’ll return to this city. Don’t even hope for another.

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

There’s no boat for you, there’s no other way out.

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

In the way you’ve destroyed your life here,

you’ve destroyed it everywhere in the world.

in this little corner, you’ve destroyed it everywhere else.