Есіңде бар ма жас күнің

Ты помнишь ли юность друг

Do you remember your youth, my friend,

When your blood was fiery hot?

You were drunk with life, you had joy without end,

All strangers were friends, all foes forgot.

Both love and repose in the company

Of your friends you could always find.

Happiness seemed within easy reach;

But alas, those days are behind.

So, alas, have fled your happy dreams

When joy gushed forth in streams.

 It seems as if it were yesterday,

But, alas, so it only seems.

Curse or implore, beg or beseech,

 Weep or sigh—they will not return.

 Your love has departed, your friends have gone

 Each of them in his turn.

 Let me weep some more if I still have tears,

Or be patient, if patience is left.

If there is any cure for my tortured heart

Let me heal its bleeding cleft.

Translated by Dorian Rottenberg