Carousel, Act I: If I Loved You

"Billy Bigelow (spoken)

Say, tell me somethin’ – ain’t you scared of

me?

I mean, after what the cop said about me

takin’ money from girls.

Julie (spoken)

I ain’t skeered.

Billy (spoken)

That your name? Julie?

Julie somethin’?

Julie (sung)

Julie Jordan.

(Billy whistles, reflectively.)

Billy (sung)

You’re a queer one, Julie Jordan.

Ain’t you sorry that you didn’t run away?

You can still go, if you wanta –

Julie

I reckon that I keer t’choose t’stay.

You couldn’t take my money

If I didn’t hev any,

And I don’t hev a penny, that’s true!

And if I did hev money

You couldn’t take any

’Cause you’d ask, and I’d give it to you!

Billy

You’re a queer one, Julie Jordan.

Have y’ever had a feller you give money to?

Julie (spoken)

No.

Billy

Ain’t y’ever had a feller at all?

Julie (spoken)

No.

Billy

Well y’musta had a feller you went walkin’

with –

Julie (spoken)

Yes.

Billy

Where’d you walk?

Julie (sung)

Nowhere special I recall.

Billy

In the woods?

Julie (spoken)

No.

Billy

On the beach?

Julie (spoken)

No.

Billy

Did you love him?

Julie (spoken)

No!

Never loved no one – I told you that!

Billy (spoken)

Say, you’re a funny kid. Want to go into town

and dance maybe? Or...

Julie (spoken)

No. I hev to be keerful.

Billy (spoken)

Of what?

Julie (spoken)

My character. Y’see, I’m never goin’ to marry.

(sung)

I’m never goin’ to marry.

If I was goin’ to marry,

I wouldn’t hev t’be sech a stickler.

But I’m never goin’ to marry,

And a girl who don’t marry

Has got to be much more pertickler!

Billy (spoken)

Suppose I was to say to you that I’d marry

you?

Julie (spoken)

You?

Billy (spoken)

That scares you, don’t it?

You’re thinkin’ what that cop said.

Julie (spoken)

No, I ain’t. I never paid no mind to what he

said.

Billy (spoken)

But you wouldn’t marry anyone like me,

would you?

Julie (spoken)

Yes, I would, if I loved you, it wouldn’t make

any difference what you – even if I died

fer it.

Billy (spoken)

How do you know what you’d do if you loved

me? Or how you’d feel – or anythin’?

Julie (spoken)

I dunno how I know.

Billy (spoken)

Ah –

Julie (spoken)

Jest the same, I know how I – how it’d be – if

I loved you.

(sung)

When I worked in the mill, weavin’ at the

loom,

I’d gaze absent-minded at the roof,

And half the time the shuttle’d tangle

in the threads,

And the warp’d get mixed with the woof...

If I loved you –

Billy (spoken)

But you don’t.

Julie (spoken)

No, I don’t...

(sung)

But somehow I ken see

Jest exack’ly how I’d be...

If I loved you,

Time and again I would try to say

All I’d want you to know.

If I loved you,

Words wouldn’t come in an easy way –

Round in circles I’d go!

Longin’ to tell you, but afraid and shy.

I’d let my golden chances pass me by!

Soon you’d leave me,

Off you would go in the mist of day,

Never, never to know

How I loved you –

If I loved you.

Billy (spoken)

Well, anyway – you don’t love me.

That’s what you said.

Julie (spoken)

Yes...

(Some blossoms drift down to their feet.)

I can smell them, can you? The blossoms?

The wind brings them down.

Billy (spoken)

Ain’t much wind tonight. Hardly any.

(sung)

You can’t hear a sound – not the turn of a

leaf,

Nor the fall of a wave, hittin’ the sand.

The tide’s creepin’ up on the beach like a

thief,

Afraid to be caught stealin’ the land.

On a night like this I start to wonder what life

is all about.

Julie (sung)

And I always say two heads are better than

one, to figger it out.

Billy (spoken)

I don’t need you or anyone to help me. I got it

figgered out for myself. We ain’t important.

What are we? A couple of specks of nothin’.

Look up there.

(sung)

There’s a helluva lot o’ stars in the sky,

And the sky’s so big the sea looks small,

And two little people –

You and I –

We don’t count at all.

(spoken)

You’re a funny kid. Don’t remember ever

meetin’ a girl like you.

You – are you tryin’ t’get me to marry you?

Julie (spoken)

No!

Billy (spoken)

Then what’s puttin’ it into my head?

You’re different all right. Don’t know what it

is. You look up at me with that little kid

face like... like you trusted me.

I wonder what it’d be like.

Julie (spoken)

What?

Billy (spoken)

Nothin’.

I know what it’d be like.

It’d be awful. I can just see myself –

(sung)

Kinda scrawny and pale, pickin’ at my food,

And lovesick like any other guy –

I’d throw away my sweater and dress up

like a dude

In a dickey and a collar and a tie...

If I loved you –

Julie (spoken)

But you don’t.

Billy (spoken)

No, I don’t.

(sung)

But somehow I can see

Just exactly how I’d be.

If I loved you,

Time and again I would try to say

All I’d want you to know.

If I loved you,

Words wouldn’t come in an easy way –

Round in circles I’d go!

Longing to tell you, but afraid and shy,

I’d let my golden chances pass me by.

Soon you’d leave me,

Off you would go in the mist of day,

Never, never to know

How I loved you –

If I loved you.

(spoken)

I’m not a feller to marry anybody.

Even if a girl was foolish enough to want me

to, I wouldn’t.

Julie (spoken)

Don’t worry about it – Billy.

Billy (spoken)

Who’s worried!

Julie (spoken)

You’re right about there bein’ no wind.

The blossoms are jest comin’ down by

theirselves.

Jest their time to, I reckon."