I hasten by a city lightning-fast Here in the rattling train: I see Streets, houses, people shooting past, Wagons, lanterns, signs in flight, Overlapping in my sight; Blotted, dim they seem to me. Here I lived once long ago, Lived for years In youth's impassioned sacred glow, In love and hate, in hopes and fears. Round the corner there-- To the left, by the square-- Lives my one-time worshipped fate; Behind the walls there, flitting past, I could almost hold it fast-- No: too late--too late! The last few houses--the empty plain: The long-lost world is fled again, With joys and sorrows great Of storm-blessed youthful strife.-- I feel as if this moment I Had like a stranger hurried by My own forgotten life! |