The world is cruel
The world is wicked
It's I alone whom you can trust in this whole city
I am your only friend
I who keep you, feed you, teach you, dress you
I who look upon you without fear
How can I protect you, boy, unless you always
Stay in here
Away in here?
Remember what I've taught you, Quasimodo
You are deformed
(I am deformed)
And you are ugly
(And I am ugly)
And these are crimes for which the world shows little pity
You do not comprehend
You are my defender
Out there, they'll revile you as a monster
(I am a monster!)
Out there, they will hate and scorn and jeer
(Only a monster)
Why invite their curses and consternation?
Stay in here
Be faithful to me
(I'm faithful)
Grateful to me
(I'm grateful)
Do as I say
Obey
And stay
In
Here
Remember, Quasimodo, this is your sanctuary
My sanctuary
Safe behind these windows and these parapets of stone
Gazing at the people down below me
All my life, I watch them as I hide up here alone
Hungry for the histories they show me
All my life, I memorize their faces
Knowing them as they will never know me
All my life, I wonder how it feels to pass a day
Not above them
But part of them
And out there, living in the sun
Give me one day out there, all I ask is one
To hold forever
Out there, where they all live on unaware
What I'd give
What I'd dare
Just to live one day out there
Out there among the millers and the weavers and their wives
Through the roofs and gables I can see them
Every day they shout and scold and go about their lives
Heedless of the gift it is to be them
If I were in their skin
I'd treasure ev'ry instant
Out there, strolling by the Seine
Taste a morning out there, like ordinary men
Who freely walk about there, just one day and then, I swear
I'll be content
With my share
Won't resent
Won't despair
Old and bent
I won't care
I'll have spent one day out... there!
