The usage of ～ば


I know that ば is to indicate that "if A happens, B will happen too".

So, today, I've listened a song and it says:

> I gotta believe  
>  I don't wanna know 下手な真実なら  
>  I don't wanna know 知らないくらいがいいのに  
>  Why? Why? Why? Why?  
>  気づけば I came too far.

(The mixture of Japanese and English is in the original.) I can't translate
the last verse. I don't think that it means "If I realize". So I would like to
know what is the meaning of this "気づけば".




It is a relatively minor, rhetorical usage of
[**ば**](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/172830/meaning/m0u/):

> **２**  
>  ㋑ある事態・結果に気づくきっかけとなった動作・作用を表す。…したところが。「ふと見れば西空は夕焼けだった」「思えば悲しい出来事だった」

It has little conditional sense here, just takes sensory verbs before and some
fact after, describing that the speaker just have recognized the fact (often
belatedly).

> 気づけば I came too far.  
>  = _When I realized it, I had (already) come too far._  
>  = _I had come too far before I realized it._

(The tense in the translation above is somewhat confusing. I know... I guess
that's what the line actually means.)

