I dreamed a dream in times gone by,
When hope was high, and life worth living.
I dreamed that love would never die,
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.
Then I was young and unafraid,
And dreams were made and used and wasted.
There was no ransom to be paid,
No song unsung, no wine untasted.
But the tigers come at night,
With their voices soft as thunder,
As they tear your hope apart,
And they turn your dream to shame.

Alain Boublil (b. 1941) French musical theatre lyricist and librettist

Les Misérables “I Dreamed a Dream” [Fantine] [music by Claude-Michel Schönberg] (1980) [tr. Herbert Kretzmer (1985)]