Sempre in fatto di carole inconsuete: compositore inglese – Benjamin Britten – e coro francese. Devo dire che gli implumini gallici, pur con l’accento, se la cavano proprio bene con This Little Babe. Per la sua Ceremony of Carols, Britten musicò anche questo inno composto da Robert Southwell, uno di quei “missionari” gesuiti che celebravano messe proibite nell’Inghilterra elisabettiana – e finivano così spesso impiccati, sventrati e squartati a Tyburn… Er, sì – questo era davvero poco natalizio, scusate.
Anyway, la musica l’avete sentita, e qui ci sono le parole:
This little Babe so few days old
Is come to rifle Satans fold.
All hell doth at his presence quake,
Though he himself for cold do shake;
For in this weak unarmèd wise
The gates of hell he will surprise.
With tears he fights and wins the field,
His naked breast stands for a shield;
His battering shot are babish cries,
His arrows looks of weeping eyes;
His martial ensigns Cold and Need,
And feeble Flesh his warriors steed.
His camp is pitchèd in a stall,
His bulwark but a broken wall;
The crib his trench, haystalks his stakes,
Of shepherds he his muster makes;
And thus, as sure his foe to wound,
The angels trumps alarum sound.
My soul, with Christ join thou in fight,
Stick to the tents that he hath pight;
Within his crib is surest ward,
This little Babe will be thy guard;
If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,
Then flit not from this heavenly boy.
E buona domenica a tutti.
Senza Errori di Stumpa 