My church choir does gospel music. This year we are doing different arrangements for some old favorites. One of the songs is “Silent Night”. The composer has written:
“It was a silent night, it was a holy night, all is calm and oh so bright
Round young virgin mother and child…”
Huh? What is up with “round young virgin”. That means that young is an adjective of virgin which means that round is also an adjective of virgin. I know of no woman who is insulted by being called young, but you call a pregnant woman round and you could be mortally wounded.
The traditional way I learned this song and the way the hymnal has the song is
“Silent night, holy night, all is calm and all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child…”
With the new arrangement I have started to analyze the original composition. I realize I do not know what is meant by “round yon virgin”.
Thanks to all who responded. I knew the literal translation of the words yet what baffled me is the intent of the original composer to what this meant.
SuaSponte, that is the interpretation of the line that I had, that maybe it was a call for the angels to gather round the blessed event.
malden, I like that interpretation, that it refers to the scene, that it is describing the location of this calm event.
Isn’t it interesting how many variations there are for something we have grown up with.
English used to have three different determiners: this, that, and yon. This meant something close at hand, yon meant something in the distance, that was something in between.
Apparently, three distinctions were more than was needed and yon was gradually lost. It survives only in the word yonder and in old writings such as this hymn.
Mondegreen is the term that defines what you have here, a misheard lyric or common phrase. Here is the link to the word doctor site describing this phenomenon:
I don’t think anyone’s got it quite right, so I’m gonna throw in my 2¢ by parsing the song:
Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright 'round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant, so tender and mild, sleep in heavenly peace.
So IMHO, “'round yon virgin” is describing where all’s calm and bright.
Of course we have to remember the song was originally written in German and this is just a translation. IIRC, a literal translation of the original goes something like “Everyone’s asleep, no one watches but the holy pair”.
The original composer was Joseph Mohr. His original German lyrics are:
Stille Nacht! Heil’ge Nacht!
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hoch heilige Paar.
Holder Knab’ im lockigen Haar,
Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh!
which translates roughly to:
Silent night! Holy night! Everything sleeps; only the lonely trusted high holy pair is awake. She holds the boy in her curly hair, sleeping in heavenly peace.
As you can see, the “round yon virgin” part wasn’t part of the composer’s original intent. Rather, it is simply a case of using different English words to fit the melody instead of a translation of the composer’s original words.
I believe that is what I wrote. The use of “that there” was my attempt at humor.