silence

I've made a Christmas-song-related breakthrough! Maybe!

The German lyrics to the first verse of Silent Night / Stille Nacht are

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!

Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!

and the part about the lockigen Haar has always bugged me. Did the baby Jesus have curly hair? How do we know this? Why on earth is it important? I've asked several theologically-educated German speakers about this and nobody seems to have any idea. Even that venerable font of wisdom Wikipedia is unclear on this point.

In 1998 the Silent Night Museum in Salzburg commissioned a new English translation by Bettina Klein of Mohr's German lyrics. Whenever possible, (and mostly), Klein leaves the Young translation unchanged, but occasionally Klein (and Mohr) varies markedly. For example, Nur das traute hochheilige Paar, Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar is translated by Young: "Round yon Virgin mother and child, Holy infant so tender and mild" whereas Klein rewords it: "Round yon godly tender pair, Holy infant with curly hair", a translation closer to the original.

But the preposition here is in, which means more or less the same thing in German that it does in English, so maybe the point isn't that Jesus *has* curly hair, but that he's *in* curly hair, as in they've put some curly sheep's wool in the manger to keep the baby comfortable. The curly hair is a reference to the stall. Doesn't that make more sense? I'm going with it.

This is not as important as, say, the question of whether it's even healthy for us to imagine Jesus being born silently in a stable in Bethlehem with Joseph by her side when these details - Bethlehem, Joseph, stable - if they were ever even intended to be taken literally - were more than likely remembered into being by people convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, who according to prophesy would be born in Bethlehem to the house of David and there would be no room for them at the inn... Chances are that the historical Jesus was born in Nazareth, in the company of women. Maybe it's a silent night because their stories have been silenced.

But not to end on an angry feminist note, I'd like to note that God saves humanity twice - first in Noah's Ark, then in the stall in Bethlehem - by forcing his chosen ones to live in close quarters with animals. Could there be something here about our salvation being inseparable from our reconciliation with nature? Or do I still have "Braiding Sweetgrass" on the brain? Yes to both, maybe.

And to be clear, I love singing Silent Night, in both German and English, content problems and all.

It's a manhole cover that looks kinda like a neuron and struck me as lovely for some reason. I have got to get out to take some more pictures.