Testo Javert's Suicide

Testo Javert's Suicide

JAVERT WALLKS THE DESERTED STREETS TILL HE
COMES TO A BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER SEINE.

JAVERT
Who is this man?
What sort of devil is he
To have me caught in a trap
And choose to let me go free?
It was his hour at last
To put a seal on my fate
Wipe out the past
And wash me clean off the slate!

All it would take
Was a flick of his knife.
Vengeance was his and he gave me back my
life!
Damned if I'll live in the debt of a thief
Damned if I'll yield at the end of the chase
I am spit his pity right back in his face
There is nothing on earth that we share
It is either Valjean or Javert!
How can I now allow this man
To hold dominion over me.
This desperate man whom I have hunted
He gave me my life. He gave me freedom.

I should have perished by his hand
It was his right
It was my right to die as well.
Instead, I live... but live in hell.
And my thoughts fly apart
Can this man be believed?
Shall his sins be forgiven?
Shall his crimes be reprieved?

And must I now begin to doubt,
Who never doubted all those years?
My heart is stone and still it trembles
The world I have known is lost in sahdow.
Is he from heaven or from hell?
And does he know
That, granting me my life today
This man has killed me even so?

I am reaching but I fall
And the stars are black and cold
As I stare into the void
Of a world that cannot hold.
I'll escape now from the world
From the world of Jean Valjean.
There is nowhere I can turn
There is no way to go on...

HE THROWS HIMSELF INTO THE SWOLLEN RIVER.
Testi Les Misérables