Valjean’s Soliloquy

[VALJEAN]
What have I done, sweet Jesus?
What have I done?
Become a thief in the night
Become a dog on the run
Have I fallen so far and is the hour so late?
That nothing remains, but the cry of my hate
The cries in the dark that nobody hears
Here where I stand at the turning of the years

If there's another way to go
I missed it 20 long years ago
My life was a war
That could never be won
They gave me a number
And they murdered Valjean
When they chained me and left me for dead
Just for stealing a mouthful of bread

Yet why did I allow this man
To touch my soul and teach me love?
He treated me like any other
He gave me his trust, he called me brother
My life he claims for God above
Can such things be?
For I had come to hate the world
This world that always hated me

Take an eye for an eye
Turn your heart into stone
This is all I have lived for
This is all I have known

One word from him and I'd be back
Beneath the lash, upon the rack
Instead he offers me my freedom
I feel my shame inside me like a knife
He told me that I have a soul
How does he know
What spirit comes to move my life?
Is there another way to go?

I am reaching, but I fall
And the night is closing in
As I stare into the void
To the whirlpool of my sin
I'll escape now from that world
From the world of Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is nothing now
Another story must begin