This song has been mentioned by John in the "Songs about the homeless" thread. I know it from an Eric Bogle vinyl titled "Down under", released in Germany about twenty years ago. The notes to the song say that the writer, Harry Robertson, is (was?) a Scotsman living in Australia who knew well what he was writing about. Here are the lyrics as on a leaflet from the Bogle record:

HOMELESS MAN
(Harry Robertson)

I've travelled hard these last ten weary years,
and my boyhood hopes have slowly turned to tears.
If you think I am complaining I can tell you that I'm not,
for I know that this is just the drifter's lot.

Many years my home has been the wayside camps,
I have starved and sweated by the river banks,
and I've fought with fists and feet, rough-necked drifters that I meet,
broken dreams and bottles line my weary path.

As a homeless boy I thought when I'm a man,
I'll change the world and right what wrongs I can,
since then I have met defeat, it's a bitter bread to eat,
and the homeless boy is now a homeless man.

Happiness has not been mine upon this earth,
both my parents left me when they met their deaths,
and I'll drink before I eat, with the drifters that I meet,
the sorrow here is mine and mine alone.

But I think, my friends, that I should move along,
and I thank you all for listening to my song,
for the road is all I've known, and I'll wander it alone,
as an outcast homeless drifter,...and unmourned.

Wolfgang