Once upon a winter's day, 
I returned a quiet way 
Down a path of distant years, 
Passing somber sobs of wind 
Under clouds of stifled tears, 
Parting ways the leaves of kin. 
It was here I came upon, 
There I was, a youth long gone: 
Home—I saw from this old tree... 
 
Here, I rested longingly 
In my thoughts and memories.  
Tired, I laid against this tree,  
Dreaming of eternity.  
 
Every leaf a memory,  
Every bloom held lovingly,  
Once so green and beautiful, 
Filled with laughs and summer songs... 
Smiling now with lonely rue,  
Branches where we once belonged, 
Falling leaves and drooping low, 
Nests forgotten, cowed by snow— 
So it was, my friend of old.  
 
And within this bitter cold, 
Which of winter's sorrows told, 
Of my path to this old place,  
Of aloofness I beheld,  
Change had come with loathsome haste: 
Filling fields of forests felled, 
Growing homes with strangers here, 
Those who left for new frontiers— 
As had we these past few years.  
 
At this tree, we last met here, 
Sunset of unworded truth, 
Promises and dreams of youth, 
Laughing freely till farewell.  
 
Oh, this tree of many tales, 
In this changing world, was well. 
One who stood the test of time, 
Older still and yet the same, 
Who we once called yours and mine, 
Stood as I had left and came.  
From away, a world of change, 
I'd returned to the unchanged. 
Here, to home, I came this way. 
 
Years I once had left astray 
Now in dreams unchanging stayed.  
Thus, I left the tree that day 
For a home I longed away... 
 
Later, on a springtime day, 
I depart a quiet way 
Up this path I went before. 
There, I meet my friend of old.  
Green as then, that day we swore,  
Like us then, I now behold 
Laughing children running past... 
Those old words now... will they last? 
Will this tree be as before? 
 
Leaving, I wish nothing more— 
 
And so I leave again the days of yore, 
Yet longingly I turn for one last glance 
At so unchanged and handsomer a place. 
I wonder where you are; are you, by chance, 
Still thinking of the day we shared this gaze? 
 
—I wish one day we will together see... 
 
One day, as green as then, and laughing free, 
Will you return with me to this old tree?