"Jack's Lament" is a song from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It is the second song in the film and the first to be sung by Jack Skellington. Played only mere minutes after the opening song, "This Is Halloween", Jack sings the song after sneaking away from town to a graveyard to gain some privacy.
The song is an "I want" song that Jack uses to assess his thoughts regarding how his immense fame and reputation as the Pumpkin King have become boring due to him repeating the same routine every year and how he longs for something new to change his life.
English[]
Performed by Danny Elfman
There are few who'd deny, at what I do I am the best For my talents are renowned far and wide When it comes to surprises in the moonlit night I excel without ever even trying With the slightest little effort of my ghostlike charms I have seen grown men give out a shriek With a wave of my hand and a well-placed moan I have swept the very bravest off their feet Yet year after year, it's the same routine And I grow so weary of the sound of screams And I, Jack, the Pumpkin King, Have grown so tired of the same old thing Oh, somewhere deep inside of these bones An emptiness began to grow There's something out there, far from my home A longing that I've never known I'm a master of fright and a demon of light And I'll scare you right out of your pants To a guy in Kentucky, I'm Mr. Unlucky And I'm known throughout England and France And since I am dead, I can take off my head To recite Shakespearean quotations No animal nor man can scream like I can With the fury of my recitations But who here would ever understand That the Pumpkin King with the skeleton grin Would tire of his crown? If they only understood... He'd give it all up if he only could Oh, there's an empty place in my bones That calls out for something unknown The fame and praise, come year after year Does nothing for these empty tears
Arabic (Standard)[]
Performed by Amr Yehia/عمرو يحيى
Arabic (Egypt)[]
Cantonese[]
Performed by Leung Ho Cheung/梁皓翔
Dutch[]
Performed by Florus van Rooijen
Precies hoe weet ik niet, maar ik geef toe dat men mij ziet Als expert in datgeen wat ik doe Als het aankompt op pesten of 'n eng gebaar Is het waar, ben ik simpelweg de beste Zelfs de allerstoerste gasten heb ik zo op de kast Mijn verrastalent saat buiten kijf Ja, ik jaag, met 'n blik en de kleinste kik Zelfs de stoerste vent de stuipen op het lijf Maar na elk jaar weer, 't gekrijs en gegil Wordt het meer en meer me eigenlijk te veel En ik, Vorst van Halloween, Kan, eerlijk gezegt, geen pompoen meer zien Er gaat 'n vreemd gevoel door mij heen 'n Leegte hier, door merg en been Soms drukt, de zware last van mijn lot En voel ik die tot op het bot Ben de meester van angst. Ja, van mij word je het bangst Ik hou ieder het langst uit z'n slaap Ik laat iedereen schrikken, ik zet bangerikken Zonder blikken of blozen voor aap Leven doe ik niet meer, dus dit doe mij geen zeer Dus ik wil nog wel eens Shakespeare reciteren En je hoort het verschil, ik krijg iedereen stil Omdat ik daarmee mijn gil kan repeteren Maar wie, o wie heeft er nu sympathie Voor en oud skelet dat het eigenlijk niet meer redt? De Vorst van Halloween in hoogsteigen persoon Doet het allerliefst nu afstand van zijn troon Er gaat 'n vreemd gevoel door mij heen Die leegte snijdt door merg en been Hoe mooi en fijn de roem soms ook is Het maakt geen eind aan dit gemis
I'm not sure quite how, but I admit that people see meAs an expert in what I do When it comes to plaguing people or to a creepy gesture That's true, I'm quite simply the best I've put even the toughest dudes to flight My talent in surprising is unquestionable Yes, with a glance and the faintest murmur, I send shivers down the spine of even the toughest fellow
But after every year of screaming and shrilling It's all becoming just far too much for me And I, Lord of Halloween, Have honestly seen enough pumpkins for a lifetime
A strange feeling is going through me An emptiness here, through my bone and marrow Sometimes, the heavy burden of my lot weighs down on me And I can feel it down to the bone
I'm the master of anguish. Yes, you'll be most frightened by me I keep everyone sleepless for the longest I scare everyone off, I make fools of the faint-hearted Without batting an eyelid I don't live anymore, so this won't hurt me At times, I even feel like reciting Shakespeare And you can hear the difference, I make everyone quiet Because thereby, I can rehearse my scream
But who, oh who will ever feel sympathy For an old skeleton who really can't hold on much longer? The Lord of Halloween in propria persona Would most gladly give up his throne now
A strange feeling is going through me The emptiness is cutting through my bone and marrow However good and nice glory may be,
It puts no end to this void
French (Canada)[]
French (France)[]
Performed by Olivier Constantin
Ils me trouvent génial. Mes mauvais tours les émerveillent. Tous les ans, c'est le triomphe et la gloire Je leur fait des surprise quand a lune s'éveille Et ils crient avant de m'apercevoir Sans le moindre effort, je m'amuse à jouer au fantôme Et presque aussitôt, c'est la panique Un seul geste banal, si l'on sait faire « Bouh ! » Fait fuir sur-le-champ l'armée le plus stoïque Mais jour après jour, c'est la même déprime Je n'éprouve plus rien en commettant mes crimes Et moi, Jack, L'Épouvantail, J'avoue me lasser de la même bataille Dans mon vieux corps, il règne aujourd'hui Une bien étrange mélancolie Pour moi, la vie n'est qu'un long sanglot Mon cœur éclate, la mort est mon lot Je suis l'esprit du mal, le génie infernal Les revenants ne vont pas on revenir Je suis marié à la peur, l'horreur et la terreur Pour le meilleur et surtout le pire Et comme je suis mort, je me sers de mon crâne Pour réciter « Être ou ne pas être » Lorsque l'envie m'en prend, me cris fracassants Résonnent à plus de cent vingt kilomètres Un jour, oui... pourrai-je me faire entendre ? Moi, l'épouvantail qu'on dit privé d'entrailles, Je ne veux plus de ma couronne. Comment pourraient-ils comprendre ? S'ils savaient seulement comme j'aimerais la rendre... Je traîne sans but mes vieux os forbus Je me languis de l'inconnu Pouvoir et glorie sont bient dérisoires Face au néant de mon désespoir
They consider me to be brilliant. My wicked tricks amaze them.Every year, it's triumph and glory I surprise them when the moon awakens And they cry before even having caught a glimpse of me Totally effortlessly, I amuse myself playing the ghost And basically in an instant, it's panic Just a banal gesture, if you know how to say "Boo!" Makes the most stoic of armies flee
But day after day, it's the same depression I no longer feel a thing in committing my crimes And I, Jack, the Scarecrow, Confess that I've grown tired of the same battle
In my old body, it reigns today A pretty strange melancholy To me, life is nothing but a long sob My heart is bursting, death is my lot
I'm the spirit of evil, the infernal genius The returners won't be coming back I am married to fear, horror and terror In good times and, above all, in bad And since I am dead, I use my own skull To act out "To Be or Not to Be" Whenever I feel like it, my thunderous cries Resound farther than 120 kilometers
One day, yes... will I manage to make them understand me? I, the scarecrow they call heartless, I no longer want my crown. How could they understand? If they only knew how I crave to return it...
I aimlessly drag around my exhausted old bones I yearn for the unknown Power and glory are so derisory
Faced with the nothingness of my despair
Georgian[]
German[]
Performed by Alexander Goebel
Greek[]
Performed by Konstantínos Staurídis/Κωνσταντίνος Σταυρίδης
Italian[]
Performed by Renato Zero
Re del blu, re del mai, non ho più dentro me Quella voglia di terrore e di guai Quando è notte, i passi miei fanno quel "tic-tac" Che ti angoscia finché griderai Piccolissimi trucchetti per stupirti un po' Fantasie arcane il venderdì Quando mormoro "ciao" o lo rantolo Treman tutti e si disperano così E tutto va via, è la mia routine E mi sento stanco di quest'aria qui E io, Jack, Fantasma-Re, Sono stufo ormai e non so perché Ho dentro me che cosa non so Un vuoto che non capirò Lontano da quel mondo che ho, C'è un sogno che spiegarmi non so Ahi, che brivido avrai quando mi incontrerai E l'angoscia avrà vinto anche te Tu serai incantato. Avrai visto e toccato Il più grande terrore che c'è Sono morto giaché la mia testa non c'è Ma ti declamerà Shakespeare a memoria Non ridere di me, ma grida perché La mia furia si rivestirà di gloria Mai più, io comprenderò il perché Ma perché sono io delle zucche il re Chi mai capirà quanto io mi sento giù? Che un regno così non mi basta più? Ho dentro me che cosa non so Un vuoto che non capirò Lontano da quel mondo che ho C'è un sogno che spiegarmi non so
King of blue, king of never, I no longer feel inside meThat longing for terror and trouble When it's nighttime, my footsteps make that "tic-tac" sound That anguishes you to cry Tiny tricks to amaze you a bit Mysterious fantasies on Friday When I whisper, "Hi" or I rattle it Everybody shivers and despairs like this
And everything goes by, it's my routine And I feel sick of this air here And I, Jack, Ghost King, Am tired now, and I don't know why
I have inside me I-don't-know-what An emptiness I won't understand Far from the world that's mine, There is a dream I can't explain on my own
Ah, how you'll shiver when you meet me And anguish will have to overcome you You'll be charmed. You'll have seen and touched The greatest terror there is I am dead since my head is not there But it will declaim Shakespeare by memory Don't laugh at me, but scream because My fury will covered with glory
Never again will I understand the reason Why I am the Pumpkin King Who will ever understand how down I feel? That a kingdom like this is no longer enough for me?
I have inside me I-don't-know-what An emptiness I won't understand Far from the world that's mine,
There is a dream I can't explain on my own
Japanese[]
Performed by Masachika Ichimura/市村正親
Korean[]
Performed by Nam Gyeong-ju/남경주
Lithuanian[]
Malay[]
Performed by Addy Jamil
Mandarin (China)[]
Performed by Wang Han/王涵
Mandarin (Taiwan)[]
Mongolian[]
First voice-over[]
Second voice-over[]
Persian[]
Avazheh[]
Performed by Ashkan Sadeghi/اشکان صادقی
Glory Entertainment[]
Polish[]
Performed by Wojciech Paszkowski
Portuguese (Brazil)[]
1993[]
Performed by Nelson Machado
2003[]
Performed by Marcelo Coutinho
Ninguém pode negar que no que eu faço, eu sou o melhor Meus talentos não preciso povar Sou o rei das surprisas na escuridão Faço tudo com muita maestria Basta só um simples gesto com a minha mão E o medo surge no olhar Sei fazer um adulto sentir terror Feito uma criancinha a chorar Mas ano após ano, é tudo igual E já não agüento esse festival E eu, Jack, o Rei do Horror, Quero algo mais, algo superior Eu sinto que bem dentro de mim Há uma dor que não tem fim Lá fora, bem longe do meu lar Meu coração quer me levar Sou o Rei do Horror e o ás de terror E você logo vai se assustar Eu vou na lua cheia, a noite inteira Como um bicho que ninguém pode ver Caso não me conheça, eu tiro a cabeça E mostro todo meu talento Não há um animal tão irracional Com um grito tão feroz e violento Mais quem poderia imaginar Que o Rei do Horror, o esqueleto sem cor Não é mais feliz no seu reino de terror? E a sua coroa quer entregar A escuridão me invade assim Como uma dor que não tem fim Eu sou um rei com fama e poder Que só queria não mais sofrer
No one can deny that at what I do, I am the bestI don't need to prove my talents I'm the king of surprises in the darkness I do everything with the greatest mastery I only require a simple gesture of my hand And the fear appears in people's visage I know how to make an adult feel terror And bawl like a little child
But year after year, it's all the same And I can no longer stand this festival And I, Jack, the King of Horror, Want something more, something better
I feel that very deep in my being There is an infinite pain Out there, very far from my home My heart wants to take me
I'm the King of Horror and the ace of terror And you'll soon be frightened I go out when the moon is full, all night long Like a beast that nobody can see If you don't know me, I remove my head And show off all my talents There is no animal quite as irrational With a bellow as savage and violent
But who could ever imagine That the King of Horror, the colorless skeleton Is no longer happy in his kingdom of terror? And his crown he wants to give up
The darkness invades me this way Like an endless pain I'm a king with fame and power
That just doesn't want to suffer anymore
2012[]
Performed by Marcelo Coutinho
Portuguese (Portugal)[]
Performed by Pedro Bargado
Romanian[]
Russian[]
Dub[]
Performed by Aleksey Kortnev/Алексей Кортнев
First voice-over[]
Second voice-over[]
Third voice-over[]
Fourth voice-over[]
Fifth voice-over[]
Sixth voice-over[]
Slovak[]
Performed by Ján Gallovič
Spanish (Latin America)[]
Performed by Sergio Saldívar
Spanish (Spain)[]
Perfomed by Tony Cruz