Sing lullaby! Lullaby baby, now reclining

Sing lullaby! Lullaby baby, now reclining. Basque Carol, freely translated by Sabine Baring-Gould* (1834-1924). The original is a Basque traditional carol, ‘Oi Betleem’, found in a collection published by Charles Bordes, Douze Noels populaires (Paris, 1895). Baring-Gould’s translation appeared in a pamphlet, The University Carol Book, ‘Parts I and II combined’ (1925). As the editors of The New Oxford Book of Carols (NOBC, 1992) point out, Baring-Gould produced not a translation but an entirely new text, modelled on German folk carols which united ‘a lullaby for the infant Christ with anticipation of his Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection’ (p. 645). It is found mainly in carol books, but...