By Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg
Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer
The words here are as they were sung in the Notables February 5, 2000, performance, and are to be sung in the October 27, 2000, performance. Text given in black is to be sung by the chorus. Text in green is sung by soloists.
Marius has fallen in love with Cosette, but Eponine is also in love with Marius. She realizes what has happened.
Eponine (Pamela):
And now I'm all alone again
Nowhere to turn, no one to go to
Without a home, without a friend,
Without a face to say hello to.
And now the night is near
Now I can make believe he's here.
Sometimes I walk alone at night
When everybody else is sleeping
I think of him and then I'm happy
With the company I'm keeping
The city goes to bed
And I can live inside my head.
On my own
Pretending he's beside me
All alone, I walk with him till morning
Without him
I feel his arms around me
And when I lose my way I close my eyes
And he has found me
In the rain the pavement shines like silver
All the lights are misty in the river
In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight
And all I see is him and me for ever
and forever
And I know it's only in my mind
That I'm talking to myself and not to him
And although I know that he is blind
Still I say, there's a way for us
I love him
But every day I'm learning
All my life I've only been pretending
Without me his world will go on turning
A world that's full of happiness
That I have never known!
I love him
I love him
I love him
But only on my own.
Before the battle, the students drink to their last night together.
Grantaire (Joe):
Drink with me to days gone by
Can it be you fear to die?
Will the world remember you
When you fall?
Could it be your death
Means nothing at all?
Is your life just one more lie?
| Men: | Women: |
| Drink with me | |
| Drink with me | |
| to days | |
| to days | |
| gone by. | |
| gone by. | |
| To the life | |
| To the life | |
| that used | |
| that used | |
| to be. | |
| to be. | |
| At the shrine of friendship never say die |
All:
Let the wine of friendship never run dry
| Men: | Women: |
| Here's to you | |
| Here's to you | |
| and here's | |
| and here's | |
| to me. | |
| to me. |
At this point, Marius sings wistfully of Cosette, and then falls asleep. Valjean prays over him, in the next song ("Bring Him Home"). In the show, the following words are sung at dawn, as the students awake.
Feuilly (Joe):
Drink with me to days gone by
Sing with me the songs we knew
All (Men):
At the shrine of friendship
Raise your glass high
Let the wine of friendship
Never run dry
(Joe):
If I die, I die with you!
Valjean is standing over Marius at the barricade.
Valjean:
God on high
Hear my prayer
In my need
You have always been there
He is young
He's afraid
Let him rest
Heaven blessed.
Bring him home
Bring him home
Bring him home.
He's like the son I might have known
If God had granted me a son.
The summers die
One by one
How soon they fly
On and on
And I am old
And will be gone.
Bring him peace
Bring him joy
He is young
He is only a boy
You can take
You can give
Let him be
Let him live
If I die, let me die
Let him live
Bring him home
Bring him home
Bring him home.
On the barricade all are killed except Valjean and Marius, who is wounded. Valjean carries him, unconscious, to safety, by way of the sewers. The women sing of the loss in the battle.
Woman 1 (Mary S):
Did you see them
Going off to fight?
Woman 2 :
Children of the barricade
Who didn't last the night?
Woman 3 :
Did you see them
Lying where they died?
Someone used to cradle them
And kiss them when they cried.
Woman 4 (chorus):
Did you see them lying side by side?
Woman 5 (Melissa A):
Who will wake them?
Woman 6 (chorus):
No one ever will.
Woman 2:
No one ever told them
That a summer day can kill.
Woman 7:
They were schoolboys,
Never held a gun,
Fighting for a new world
That would rise up with the sun.
Woman 3:
Where's that new world now the fighting's done?
Woman 4 (Connie):
Nothing changes.
Woman 7 (Theresa):
Nothing ever will.
Woman 8 (Connie):
Every year another brat, another mouth to
fill.
Woman 7 (Donna):
Same old story.
(Cindy L:) What's
the use of tears?
Woman 5 (Donna):
What's the use of praying if there's nobody
who hears?
All Women:
Turning, turning, turning, turning, turning
Through the years.
Turning, turning, turning through the years
Minutes into hours and the hours into years.
Nothing changes. Nothing ever can.
Round and round the roundabout and back where you began.
Round and round and back where you began!
Marius, recovering from his wounds, imagines he is back at the ABC café.
Marius (Gary):
There's a grief that can't be spoken.
There's a pain goes on and on.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone.
Here they talked of revolution.
Here it was they lit the flame.
Here they sang about `tomorrow'
And tomorrow never came.
From the table in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with voices ringing
I can hear them now!
The very words that they had sung
Became their last communion
On the lonely barricade at dawn.
Oh my friends, my friends forgive me
(The ghosts of those who died on the barricade appear.)
That I live and you are gone.
There's a grief that can't be spoken.
There's a pain goes on and on.
Phantom faces at the window.
Phantom shadows on the floor.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will meet no more.
The ghosts fade away.
Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me
What your sacrifice was for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will sing no more.
Cosette and Marius are married, just before Valjean is about to die.
Valjean:
On this page
I write my last confession.
Read it well
When I at last am sleeping.
It's the story
Of those who always loved you.
Your mother gave her life for you
Then gave you to my keeping.
The other spirits, including Eponine appear.
Fantine:
Come with me
Where chains will never bind you
All your grief
At last, at last behind you.
Lord in Heaven,
Look down on him in mercy.
Valjean:
Forgive me all my trespasses
And take me to your glory.
Fantine and Eponine:
Take my hand
And lead me to salvation.
Take my love,
For love is everlasting.
Valjean, Fantine, and Eponine:
And remember
The truth that once was spoken
To love another person
Is to see the face of God!
Chorus:
Kathy & Jerry:
Do you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night?
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light.
Add Jan & Brian:
For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies.
Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise.
Add Howard & Dale and Nick
& Theresa:
They will live again in freedom
In the garden of the Lord.
They will walk behind the plough-share,
They will put away the sword.
The chain will be broken
And all men will have their reward.
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes...
Tomorrow comes!
The curtain falls.
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