Merry Xmas 2021

Are you ready to celebrate Xmas? I love reading poems to feel the atmosphere of such festivities even more. Here is my favorite French poem about Christmas and an English translation.

Merry Xmas from parisrentapartments.com!

A French poem about Christmas

Noel

Le ciel est noir, la terre est blanche.
Cloches, carillonnez gaîment!
Jésus est né; la Vierge penche
Sur lui son visage charmant.
Pas de courtines festonnées
Pour préserver l’enfant du froid;
Rien que les toiles d’araignées
Qui Pendent des poutres du toit.
Il tremble sur la paille fraîche,
Ce cher petit enfant Jésus,
Et pour l’échauffer dans sa crèche
L’âne et le bœuf soufflent dessus.
La neige au chaume pend ses franges,
Mais sur le toit s’ouvre le Ciel,
Et, tout en blanc, le chœur des anges
Chante aux bergers: ‘Noël! Noël!’

(Theophile Gautier)

°°°

The sky is black, the earth is white.
Bells chime cheerfully!
Jesus is born; the Virgin leans
On him her charming face.
No festooned curtains
To preserve the child from the cold;
Nothing but the cobwebs
That hang from the roof beams.
He shakes on the fresh straw,
This dear little baby Jesus,
And to warm him in his crib
The donkey and the ox blow on it.
The snow on the thatch hangs its bangs,
But on the roof opens the Sky,
And, all in white, the choir of angels
Sings to the shepherds: ‘Christmas! Christmas!’