Man of La Mancha [I, Don Quixote] lyrics

[Cervantes]

May I set the stage? I shall impersonate a man

Come, enter into my imagination and see him

His name... Alonso Quijana. A country squire

No longer young... bony, hollow-faced... eyes

That burn with the fire of inner vision. Being

Retired, he has much time for books. He studies

Them from morn to night and often through the

Night as well. And all he reads oppresses him

Fills him with indignation at man's murderous

Ways toward man. And he conceives the strangest

Project ever imagined: to become a knight-errant

And sally forth into the world to right all

Wrongs. No longer shall he be plain Alonso Quijana

But a dauntless knight known as

Don Quixote de La Mancha!

[Don Quixote]

Hear me now, oh thou bleak and unbearable world

Thou art base and debauched as can be

And a knight with his banners all bravely unfurled

Now hurls down his gauntlet to thee

I am I, Don Quixote

The Lord of La Mancha

My destiny calls and I go

And the wild winds of fortune

Will carry me onward

Whithersoever they blow

Whithersoever they blow

Onward to glory I go!

[Sancho Panza]

I'm Sancho! Yes, I'm Sancho!

I'll follow my master till the end

I'll tell all the world proudly

I'm his squire! I'm his friend!

[Don Quixote]

Hear me, heathens and wizards and serpents of sin

All your dastardly doings are past

For a holy endeavor is now to begin

And virtue shall triumph at last!

I am I, Don Quixote

The Lord of La Mancha

My destiny calls and I go

And the wild winds of fortune

Will carry me onward

Whithersoever they blow

[Sancho]

I'm Sancho! Yes, I'm Sancho!

I'll follow my master till the end

I'll tell all the world proudly

I'm his squire! I'm his friend!

[Both]

Whithersoever they blow

Onward to glory we go!