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, aware
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 every 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