O little one sweet, O little one mild

O little one sweet, O little one mild. Valentin Thilo* (?) (1607-1662), translated by Percy Dearmer* (1867-1936). Dearmer’s translation in four verses was first published in The Oxford Book of Carols (1928). The German text, beginning ‘O Jesulein süss, O Jesulein mild’, was printed in the revised edition of OBC (1964), which uses a different translation for the first four verses, placing Dearmer’s verses 3 and 4 at the end to make a six-verse carol. In one version or another, it has made the transition from carol to hymn in several books. It has been attributed to Valentin Thilo, Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Königsberg, in BBCHB, which used a different translation of two...