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

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

find another city better than this one.

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

Whatever I try to do is fated to turn out wrong

Every effort I make is condemned, turns out amiss,

and my heart lies buried like something dead.

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

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

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

Wherever I turn, wherever I look,

Here, wherever I look, wherever I turn my gaze

I see the black ruins of my life, here,

I see the blackened wreck of all my days,

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

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

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

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

This city will always pursue you.

This city will follow you. The streets you tread

You’ll walk the same streets, grow old

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just as you destroyed your life back here

you’ve destroyed it everywhere in the world.

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