You said: "I shall go to some other land, I shall go to some other sea.

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

Another city there must be, better than this.

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

My every effort here is a sentence of condemnation against me,

Every effort I make is condemned, turns out amiss,

and my heart—like a corpse—lies buried.

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

How long shall my mind remain smothered in this blight?

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

Wherever I turn my eye, wherever I look,

Here, wherever I look, wherever I turn my gaze

I see the black ruins of my life

I see the blackened wreck of all my days,

where I spent and spoiled and ruined so many years."

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

Fresh lands you shall not find, you shall not find other seas.

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

The city shall ever follow you.

This city will follow you. The streets you tread

In streets you shall wander that are the same streets and

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

grow old in quarters that are the same

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

and among these very same houses you shall turn grey.

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

You shall always be returning to the city. Hope not;

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

there is no ship to take you to other lands, there is no road.

Just as you destroyed your life back here

You have so spoiled your life here in this tiny corner

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

that you have ruined it in all the world.