Hello everyone and welcome back to EnglishPod.
My name is Marco.
And my name is Catherine, and it's the holiday season, so that means more Christmas songs for you guys.
That's right.
And today we're going to be taking a look at a very famous song, very relaxed but very beautiful song called Silent Night.
Yeah, this is one of those songs that you hear everywhere, but unlike Jingle Bells, which is like jingle bells, jingle bells not, you know very cheery and uplifting and shopping music.
This is more, as Marco said, calm, peaceful, almost church music.
So we're going to find out what the words mean in this very classic song.
Right, it's classic and very religious because it has a connotation towards the Catholic religion.
So why don't we listen to the song and then we'll be back to explain it.
Satsang All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon virgin, mother and child.
So tender and mild Sleep in heavenly peace Sleep in heavenly peace Alright, we're back.
So now let's take a look at this song line by line.
So we're not going to do the standard format of picking out words.
We're going to do it line by line to kind of get a good feel for this dialogue.
So first of all, some background.
Okay, so the 24th, the evening, Mary and Joseph are looking for a place to stay.
Mary, the virgin mother of God, is going to give birth to a baby.
Right.
And they need a place to stay, so finally they find a place.
It's not a hotel.
It's not a house.
It's like an inn.
Yeah, well, it's actually the stables for the inn, right?
Oh, the stables for the inn, yeah.
And so what the song is celebrating is what happens afterwards, after the baby Jesus is born.
So that's the way we are.
All right.
So the first line says, silent night, holy night.
As you know, it's holy.
That means it's religiously special.
It's important.
Okay.
All is calm.
All is bright.
Right.
So we talk about bright lights sometimes.
Something is bright if it gives a lot of light off.
And well, the next line is very interesting because it says, round yawn virgin mother and child.
Now, you see this first two words there, round yawn.
What is round yawn?
So round comes from around.
Okay.
Yon means over there.
So around over there.
So over there, we've got two people.
Okay, we've over there, we've got the Virgin Mother and her child.
Okay, so the Virgin Mother is Mary, right?
That's right.
And the child would be Jesus.
Exactly.
And this is holy infant, so tender and mild.
Okay, so what is an infant?
An infant is a baby, some baby that's just been born.
So we can say that infants are very, very delicate.
You have to be very careful when you hold an infant.
But in this case, a holy infant is Jesus.
He's special for religious reasons.
And when they say that he's tender and mild, what does he mean by that?
And something that is mild or someone that is mild is very quiet and calm and gentle.
So not making much noise.
So the baby is very sweet, very tender and wasn't crying or making a big fuss.
Exactly.
And then we have sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.
Well, the baby's quiet because the baby's sleeping.
So you're saying sleep in heavenly peace.
That means, you know, may the peace of heaven because heaven is a very peaceful place, the most peaceful place.
May that peace be with you when you're sleeping.
Okay, very good.
Right, and moving on, we have silent night, holy night again.
But then they say shepherds quake at the sight.
So what is this?
Shepherds, we know that these are people that take care of sheep.
That's right.
They make the sheep move from one place to another.
But it says they quake at the sight.
So they quake at the sight of what?
Well, quake, we often say quiver in one's boots, or to quake means to shake when you're nervous.
Okay, so you know, when you're going to make a speech in front of many many, many people, your hands start to shake.
That's called quaking.
Okay.
So to quake.
All right.
So shepherds quake.
They're nervous at the sight.
Well, the sight is the noun for seeing something.
The sight of Jesus.
Of the baby.
Okay.
Okay.
Glories stream from heaven afar.
So, glories stream from heaven afar.
Okay, the verb here, the action word, is to stream.
To stream.
Okay, that means to come down.
Okay.
Okay, so to come down in kind of big amounts.
So we have glory, glory.
So happiness and joy and glory and good things coming down from the heavens.
So lots of positive, good things coming down from heaven.
And where is heaven?
Afar.
Afar.
So the key part of this is the word far.
It's far away, right?
Yeah.
Afar is an old word we use to describe something that's far away.
So the heavens afar or the heavens that are far away are giving us all of this joy and happiness.
Okay.
Glory.
And then the song says, Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia.
So, heavenly hosts, those are bodies or people or spirits in the sky.
Angels.
They're singing Alleluia.
So, Alleluia is a word that we often use in the Christian religion that comes from Greek, actually.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
So, Alleluia is a Greek word and it means celebrate, joy, amen.
Okay.
Alleluia.
It's something you're happy about.
Alleluia.
Hallelujah.
And then they say, Christ, the savior is born.
Now we have this, the savior.
What is it?
Who is a savior?
Or what is a savior?
It's a very good question.
A savior is a word we only read.
Well, we don't hear that often, but you've heard the word to save before.
So for example, I fell into the water and Marco jumped in and saved me.
So I would be a savior.
Marco is my Savior.
He saved me.
But in this case, Savior refers to the Bible and the things that Jesus did later.
So we say in Christianity, He saved people, the humankind.
So He is the Savior.
Christ the Savior.
All right.
Alright, and then our next verse it says, So we have radiant beams and then we have this word thy.
So these beams is like a beam of light, right?
It's like a line of light, but you know how light is clear.
So a beam of light is something that comes down in a straight line.
You can see it.
You can see it.
So, for example, when I turn on a flashlight and there's a line of light, that's a beam.
Okay.
And radiant means it's very bright.
It's very clear.
Clear and it's strong and it's coming out from that one place okay.
And what about this word thy?
It's very popular, like form old english right.
It's an old english form of saying you you, right.
So in the olden days in english we had different ways of saying the word you okay, and so thy is one of those words and you hear this very often.
And so in this sentence we're saying radiant beams from thy holy face.
We're now starting to talk to Jesus because we're referring to him.
You, radiant beams, light is coming out of your face.
Because you're such a holy.
Now, I think you can probably see this thy and thou in Shakespeare, for example, right?
Exactly.
Shakespeare, the Bible, prayers, and all sorts of old books and poetry.
Right.
Okay.
And then we say, with the dawn of redeeming grace.
So what is to redeem?
To redeem is to find value in something that didn't have value before.
Okay.
Okay, so maybe I have a ticket for some, okay, I won a small lottery ticket, $5.
I go to the store to redeem my money.
Okay.
The paper is worthless.
Right.
But it's worth something when I redeem it.
Okay.
Okay, so Christ the Redeemer, when he saves people, he redeems them.
Okay.
He gives them value again.
Very good.
Good.
So it's a very profound song, right?
And it talks about, as we say, about Jesus, about angels, and it's very, very religious.
So it's a great song, and it's a very popular song.
And well, even if you don't share the religious connotation that the song has, it still is very popular in North America and many parts of the world.
So why don't we have a listen to this song one last time?
Silent night, Holy night, All is calm, All is bright.
Oh the infant, so tender and mild.
Sleep in heavenly peace.
So I know that there are some other countries that have the same song with different words.
So it's the same rhythm and everything, but just in German.
Exactly.
And is it pretty much the same idea, the same words?
Yeah, almost exactly the same, just in the translated form.
Maybe it came from German, I don't know.
Because it seems to be pretty old, right?
That's right.
But it is a very common song during Christmas.
And even many times Christmas carolers will go around in a neighborhood and sing these songs in different places, right?
Exactly.
And it's a really beautiful song, one of my favorites.
And I'm not a religious person, so I don't really like it for the religious perspective that it gives.
But I do think that it's just one of those beautiful classic songs that makes the season very warm and special.
The music is nice in this song.
It is.
All right.
So an interesting song, and I'm sure we're going to have a lot of questions and comments about it.
So we expect to see you guys on our website, EnglishPod.com, and we'll see you guys there.
Happy holidays and enjoy.
Bye, guys.
Bye-bye.
