Only a moment; a moment of strength, of romance, of glamour—of youth!… A flick of sunshine upon a strange shore, the time to remember, the time for a sigh, and—goodbye!—Night—Goodbye…!

The speaker compresses an entire phase of life—youthful daring, romantic self-mythologizing, and the intoxicating “glamour” of possibility—into something as brief as a flash of light. The imagery of “a flick of sunshine upon a strange shore” evokes the transient brightness of adventure or first love against an alien, indifferent world, a characteristically Conradian contrast between human feeling and vast, impersonal surroundings. The repeated farewells (“goodbye!—Night—Goodbye…!”) suggest not only parting from a place or person but the closing of an era: youth as a short-lived illumination before darkness, memory, and regret take over.