Out There

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, teach you, feed 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 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 one 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 calumny
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.

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 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 was 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.