Extra! A Christmas Song for 2024

Season’s Greetings & a Christmas Song | All the best to all Five Things readers

So, this year’s Christmas song is “Silent Night”. Written in 1816 by Joseph Mohr, with music by his friend, Franz Xavez Gruber. My version is an unholy mix of “Nightshift” by The Commodores (I wish) and Robbie Robertson’s soundtrack to Killers of the Flower Moon (I also wish).

Even as a child I baulked at the “tender and mild” line — always odd, now it brings to mind supermarket descriptions of steaks and bags of salad… so I used a more accurate translation to English (by Bettina Klein), which keeps the spirit and meaning of Joseph Mohr’s original.

The traditional English version of “Silent Night” has only three verses. These are the first, second and last verses of the six verses of “Stille Nacht! Heil’ge Nacht!” written by Mohr. I’ve used four verses (otherwise, this would be ten minutes long…). The painting in the video is Le Seize Septembre by Rene Magritte. Enjoy!

Silent Night! Holy Night!
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon godly tender pair
Holy infant with curly hair
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent Night! Holy Night!
Brought the world gracious light
Down from heaven’s golden height
Comes to us the glorious sight:
Jesus, as one of mankind
Jesus, as one of mankind.

Silent Night! Holy Night!
Long ago, minding our plight
God, the world from misery freed
In the dark age, our fathers decreed:
All the world is redeemed
All the world is redeemed.

Silent Night! Holy Night!
Shepherds first saw the sight
Of angels singing alleluia
Calling clearly near and far:
Christ, the Saviour is born
Christ the Saviour is born.  

Last year’s song can be found here…

And four previous songs can be found here…