Les Miserables - Prologue-Work Song Lyrics

1815, Toulon, France. The chain gang, overseen by brutal warders, works in the sun.]



Prisoners

Look down, look down

Don't look 'em in the eye

Look down, look down,

You're here until you die

The sun is strong

It's hot as hell below

Look down, look down,

There's twenty years to go

I've done no wrong!

Sweet Jesus hear my prayer!

Look down, look down,

Sweet Jesus doesn't care

I know she'll wait,

I know that she'll be true!

Look down, look down,

They've all forgotten you

When I get free ya won't see me

Here for dust!

Look down, look down

Don't look 'em in the eye

How long O Lord

Before you let me die?

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

And you will starve again

Unless you learn the meaning of the law.



Valjean

I know the meaning of these 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



Chorus

Look down, look down

You will 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 waiting.

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've 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.]



Innkeeper'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.]



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 my 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's 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!



[Taking the silver cup, he runs off, but is brought back by two constables.]