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

You said: “I’ll find a new land, find another sea—

I will betake me to another sea.

A new city’ll turn up, a better one than this.

A better place than this may well be found.

Every effort I make is condemned, turns out amiss,

All my endeavours are foredoomed to fail,

While my heart, like a corpse, lies buried deep,

and as though dead my heart is sepulchred.

And my mind—how long will my mind stay sunk in stagnant sleep?

How long shall this corrosion sap my brain?

Here, wherever I look, wherever I turn my gaze

On every side — whichever way I look —

I see the blackened wreck of all my days,

dark ruins of my life confront me here

So many years spent, ruined, lost by me.”

where I have spent and wrecked so many years.”

There are no new places you’ll find, you’ll catch no other tide.

You shall not find new places; other seas

This city will follow you. The streets you tread

you shall not find. The place shall follow you.

Will be the same, it’s in these same houses your head

And you shall walk the same familiar streets,

Will turn grey, in the same neighborhoods that you’ll age.

and you shall age in the same neighbourhood,

Always you’ll end up in this city. Don’t hope to turn the page

and whiten in these same houses. Ever this place

To an Elsewhere for which there’s no ship for you, no road shows clear.

shall you arrive at. There is neither ship,

Just as you destroyed your life back here

nor road, for you, to bring you otherwhere.

In this tiny retreat, so you ruined it world-wide.

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

even so you spoilt it over all the earth.