Campanas de Navidad

One of the things I like about Christmas carols is that they sometimes have really neat backstories and are truly miracles in how they came to us and have lasted as well-known Christmas songs for so long.

This Christmas hymn is no different. For those of you that are well-versed in American poets, you might even recognize that this song was originally a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the American poet that was born in 1807 an died in 1882.

History of Campanas de Navidad (but the English version)

This Christmas carol was actually written by Longfellow during the U.S. Civil War in 1863. According to the story, Longfellow's son became a soldier for the Union army, which didn't make his father very happy. Soon after joining, Longfellow's son Charles wrote a letter to his father talking about his motivations for joining the military. According to Wikipedia:

I have tried hard to resist the temptation of going without your leave but I cannot any longer. I feel it to be my first duty to do what I can for my country and I would willingly lay down my life for it if it would be of any good.

Longfellow's son sometime later was injured during a battle, and that incident, together with Longfellow's loss of his wife not too much earlier, really inspired Longfellow to pen the words to I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.

Here are those words (the original text by Longfellow, again from WikiSource:

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound the carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn, the households born
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

The Spanish version of the song, Campanas de Navidad, doesn't quite share the same history and backstory as the English version, but the Spanish Christmas carol is still a fun one to sing and especially for children to learn. You can even let kids use bells and have them shake the bells while they sing.

And now for the Spanish translation: Campanas de Navidad

Oí campanas repicar el día de la Navidad,
su dulce canto pregonar de paz y buena voluntad.

Sabía que el carillón cantaba el alegre son
clamando a la cristiandad la paz y buena voluntdad.

Mas no podía hallar solaz, pues no veía yo la paz.
Había odio y maldad, sin paz ni buena voluntdad.

El son llegó más fuerte ya: "Dios vive y velando está.
Los justos prevalecerán con paz y buena voluntad".

El mundo se me transformó; la noche en día se tornó.
Sublime son oí cantar de paz y buena voluntad.

Return from Campanas de Navidad back to Christmas Carols in Spanish.