Child Jesus Christ is born again;
The Angel in air, in grove, in sea,
It is the Saviour, it is He.
Wherefore all Nature, with serene
Rejoicing, buds in hopeful green.
Now the young stainless shepherd lads,
Watching the stars' high myriads,
See God's angels in fields of night
Assemble, trembling in cool moonlight.
"To-day a Saviour is born," they sing,
"From gentle Mary's womb, from spring.
"His only drink is the earliest dew,
His eyes gaze heavenward into the blue,
His hands reach heavenward; they are bound
With garlands of roses to the ground.
His cry is the breeze, in the straw he lies,
Blue heaven mirrored in his eyes.
"Ah shepherds, go to Bethlehem;
Seek the cold-hearted, counsel them
To go into the fields, and find
The laughing Child, green grass-entwined,
And hear his voice, and see his smile,
That heaven may lift the earth awhile."
The hovering angels reascend.
To Bethlehem the shepherds wend,
And tell their happy news, but they
Are scorned, and mocked, and turned away
Back to the meadows, where the sod
Blooms with the new-born Child of God.
The stars stretch forth their silver hands
And beckon the kings of the eastern lands;
The rays come singing with holy sound
And humbly sink to the living ground,
Praising the Lord made manifest,
Who smiles from the Mother's lovely breast.
They rise again from the darkened mould
In petals of purple, crimson, and gold,
Innocent children, devout and fair,
Half-lifted, half-bent to the earth in prayer,
Holding their yellow urns astir
With the sweetness of frankincense and myrrh.
~ Adam Gottlob Oehlenschlaeger
