Javert's Suicide (Javert) Songtext
von Claude‐Michel Schönberg

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 up the past and watch me clean up 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 the law and the law is not mocked
I′ll 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 that 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
What I never doubted all those years?
My heart is stone but still it trembles

The world I have known
Is lost in shadow
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 that world
From the world of Jean Valjean
There is no where I can turn
There is no way to go on