Thoughts on the words of two Christmas songs …
“He sing zuhl luv song a-zweego oo uhl l0ng oo-aw-kin nin nuh oo-in-tuhr oo-un-duhr-land”
Puzzled ?
We were ……. but not for long,
“Winter wonderland” – a fantastic arrangement by Leo Arnaud.
How about the traditional words for “Cherry Tree Carol” :
- O then bespoke Mary, so meek and so mild,
- ‘Pluck me one cherry, Joseph, for I am with child.’
O then bespoke Joseph with words so unkind,
- ‘Let him pluck thee a cherry that brought thee with child.’
O then bespoke the babe within his mother’s womb,
- ‘Bow down then the tallest tree for my mother to have some.’
Then bow’d down the highest tree unto his mother’s hand:
- when she cried, ‘See, Joseph, I have cherries at command!’
O then bespake Joseph— ‘I have done Mary wrong;
- but cheer up, my dearest, and be not cast down.
‘O eat your cherries, Mary, o eat your cherries now;
- o eat your cherries, Mary, that grow upon the bough.’
Then Mary pluck’d a cherry as red as the blood;
- then Mary went home with her heavy load
The words in the arrangement by David Willcocks have lost a little of this naivety but the carol is still wonderful, nonetheless.