Prologue look down

[PRISONERS]
Look down, look down
Don't look 'em in the eye
Look down, look down,
You're here until you die

[CONVICT ONE]
The sun is strong
It's hot as hell below

[PRISONER]
Look down, look down,
There's twenty years to go

[CONVICT TWO]
I've done no wrong!
Sweet Jesus, hear my prayer!

[PRISONERS]
Look down look down,
Sweet Jesus doesn't care

[CONVICT THREE]
I know she'll wait,
I know that she'll be true!

[PRISONERS]
Look down, look down,
They've all forgotten you

[CONVICT FOUR]
When I get free ya won't see me
Here for dust!

[PRISONERS]
Look down, look down
Don't look 'em in the eye

[CONVICT FIVE]
How long, oh Lord
Before you let me die?

[PRISONERS]
Look down, look down,
You'll always be a slave
Look down, look down,
You're standing in your grave

[JAVERT]
Now bring me prisoner 24601
Your time is up
And your parole's begun
You know what that means.

[VALJEAN]
Yes, it means I'm free.

[JAVERT]
No!
It means you get
Your yellow ticket-of-leave
You are a thief

[VALJEAN]
I stole a loaf of bread.

[JAVERT]
You robbed a house.

[VALJEAN]
I broke a window pane.
My sister's child was close to death
And we were starving.

[JAVERT]
You will starve again
Unless you learn the meaning of the law.

[VALJEAN]
I know the meaning of those 19 years
A slave of the law

[JAVERT]
Five years for what you did
The rest because you tried to run
Yes, 24601.

[VALJEAN]
My name is Jean Valjean

[JAVERT]
And I am Javert
Do not forget my name!
Do not forget me,
24601.

[PRISONERS]
Look down, look down
You'll always be a slave
Look down, look down
You're standing in your grave.

[VALJEAN]
Freedom is mine. The earth is still.
I feel the wind. I breathe again.
And the sky clears
The world is waking.
Drink from the pool. How clean the taste.
Never forget the years, the waste.
Nor forgive them
For what they've done.
They are the guilty - everyone.
The day begins...
And now lets see
What this new world
Will do for me!

[He finds work on a farm]

[FARMER]
You'll have to go
I'll pay you off for the day
Collect your bits and pieces there
And be on your way.

[VALJEAN]
You have given me half
What the other men get!
This handful of tin
Wouldn't buy my sweat!

[LABORER]
You broke the law
It's there for people to see
Why should you get the same
As honest men like me?

[VALJEAN]
Now every door is closed to me
Another jail. Another key. Another chain
For when I come to any town
They check my papers
And they find the mark of Cain
In their eyes I see their fear
`We do not want you here.'

[He comes to an inn]

[INKEEPER'S WIFE]
My rooms are full
And I've no supper to spare
I'd like to help a stranger
All we want is to be fair

[VALJEAN]
I will pay in advance
I can sleep in a barn
You see how dark it is
I'm not some kind of dog!

[INNKEEPER]
You leave my house
Or feel the weight of my rod
We're law-abiding people here
Thanks be to God.

[They throw him out of the inn]

[VALJEAN]
And now I know how freedom feels
The jailer always at your heels
It is the law!
This piece of paper in my hand
That makes me cursed throughout the land
It is the law!
Like a cur
I walk the street,
The dirt beneath their feet.

[He sits down despairingly outside a house from which emerges the Bishop of Digne.]

[BISHOP]
Come in, Sir, for you are weary,
And the night is cold out there.
Though our lives are very humble
What we have, we have to share.
There is wine here to revive you.
There is bread to make you strong,
There's a bed to rest till morning,
Rest from pain, and rest from wrong.

[VALJEAN]
He let me eat my fill
I had the lion's share
The silver in my hand
Cost twice what I had earned
In all those nineteen years -
That lifetime of despair
And yet he trusted me.
The old fool trusted me -
He'd done his bit of good
I played the grateful serf
And thanked him like I should
But when the house was still,
I got up in the night.
Took the silver
Took my flight!

[CONSTABLE ONE]
Tell his reverence your story

[CONSTABLE TWO]
Let us see if he's impressed

[CONSTABLE ONE]
You were lodging here last night

[CONSTABLE TWO]
You were the honest Bishop's guest.

[CONSTABLE ONE]
And then, out of Christian goodness

[CONSTABLE TWO]
When he learned about your plight

[CONSTABLE ONE]
You maintain he made a present of this silver.

[BISHOP]
That is right.
But my friend you left so early
Surely something slipped your mind

[The bishop gives Valjean two silver candlesticks]

You forgot I gave these also
Would you leave the best behind?
So, Messieurs, you may release him
For this man has spoken true
I commend you for your duty
And God's blessing go with you.

[VALJEAN]
What have I done?
Sweet Jesus, what have I done?
Become a thief in the night,
Become a dog on the run
And have I fallen so far,
And is the hour so late
That nothing remains but the cry of my hate,
The cries in the dark that nobody hears,
Here where I stand at the turning of the years?

If there's another way to go
I missed it twenty long years ago
My life was a war that could never be won
They gave me a number and murdered Valjean
When they chained me and left me for dead
Just for stealing a mouthful of bread

Yet why did I allow that man
To touch my soul and teach me love?
He treated me like any other
He gave me his trust
He called me brother
My life he claims for God above
Can such things be?
For I had come to hate the world
This world that always hated me

Take an eye for an eye!
Turn your heart into stone!
This is all I have lived for!
This is all I have known!

One word from him and I'd be back
Beneath the lash, upon the rack
Instead he offers me my freedom
I feel my shame inside me like a knife
He told me that I have a soul,
How does he know?
What spirit comes to move my life?
Is there another way to go?

I am reaching, but I fall
And the night is closing in
And I stare into the void
To the whirlpool of my sin
I'll escape now from the world
From the world of Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is nothing now
Another story must begin!