“When the world is growing older,

And the road leads down and down and down,

And the wind is in the bare tree-tops

And the meadows sodden with much rain,

Seek me here in the old places,

And here, where I dwell, you shall find me,”

Says the old Faith we are leaving.

“When the muscles stiffen,

Eyes glaze, ears lose their keenness,

When the mind loses its familiar nimbleness,

And the tongue no longer voices it, speeds before it, follows it,

Seek me here in the old places, find me,”

And here, where I have always dwelt, you shall

Says the old Faith we are leaving.

“I shall not watch your going down the road,

Not even to the turning at the hill,

Not for me to hear you greet the strange women,

Not for meto see them greet you.

Theyshall be many and many the houses you shall

enter, but never shall house be like to mine,”

Says the old Faith we are leaving.

“You shall hear strange new songs,

But never song like the one I sing by your pillow;

You shall breathe strange new scents, the linen.

But never scent like that of the herbs I strew ’mid

Go! I give you time to make holiday,

Travel, travel, fare into far countries,

But you shall come back again to the old places,

Andhere, where I have always dwelt, you shall find me,”

Says the old Faith we are leaving.

But we—we shall never return.