Wednesday 24 December 2014

Sing Hey the Gift! Translated from Gaelic

Godfrey Blount's good friend James A. Campbell (who I wrote about here) translated this old Highland carol from Gaelic for the 1910 Double Christmas Number of The Vineyard (No. 3).  I have found only one reference to this carol elsewhere on the internet, which references the same copy of The Vineyard and states "Even in dour Scotland, with its hatred of religious festivals, some kind of carolling survived here and there among Highland folk, and a remarkable and very “Celtic” Christmas song has been translated from the Gaelic by Mr. J. A. Campbell" (sacred-texts.com).



from The Vineyard,
1910, No. 3


"Sing hey the Gift, sing ho the Gift,
Sing hey the Gift of the Living,
Son of the Dawn, Son of the Star,
Son of the Planet, Son of the Far.  (Twice)
Sing hey the Gift, sing ho the Gift.

"Sing hey the Gift, sing ho the Gift,
Sing hey the Gift of the Living,
Son of Rain, Son of the Dew,
Son of the Cloud-drift, Son of the Blue. (Twice)
Sing hey, etc.

Sing hey the Gift, etc.
Son of the Flame, Son of the Light,
Son of the high Spheres, Son of our Night. (Twice)
Sing hey, etc.

Sing hey the Gift, etc.
Son of Nature, Son of the One,
Son of the New-Moon, Son of the Sun. (Twice)
Sing hey, etc.

Sing hey the Gift, etc.
Son of Mary, Child of her breast,
Son of the kind God, first news and best. (Twice)
Sing hey, etc."

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