A Boy is Born to Us

Rorate coeli desuper!
   Heavens, distil your balmy showers;
For now is risen the bright Daystar,
   From the rose Mary, flower of flowers:
   The clear Son, whom no cloud devours,
Surmounting Phoebus in the East,
   Is coming from His heav’nly towers,
Et nobis puer natus est.

Archangels, angels, and dominations,
   Thrones, potentates, and martyrs here,
And all ye heav'nly operations,
   Star, planet, firmament, and sphere,
   Fire, earth, air, and water clear,
To Him give loving, great and least,
   That comes in such a meek manner;
Et nobis puer natus est.

Sinners be glad, and penance do,
   And thank your Maker heartily;
For He that ye might not come to,
   To you is coming, fully humbly,
   Your souls with His own blood to buy,
And loose you from the fiend’s arrest—
   And only from His own mercy;
Pro nobis puer natus est.

All clergy do to him incline,
   And bow unto that babe benign,
And do your observance divine
   To him that is the King of kings:
   Incense his altar, read and sing
In holy church, with mind digest,
   Him honouring above all things
Qui nobis puer natus est. 

Celestial fowls in the air,
   Sing with your notes upon the height,
In firths and in the forests fair
   Be mirthful now with all your might;
   For passèd is your dully night;
Aurora has the clouds all pierced,
   The Son is risen with gladsome light,
Et nobis puer natus est.

Now spring up flowers from the root,
   Revert you upward naturally,
In honour of the blessed fruit
   That rose up from the rose Mary;
   Lay out your long leaves lustily,
From death take life at His behest
   In worship of that Prince worthy
Qui nobis puer natus est. 

Sing, heaven imperial's greatest height,
   Regions of air make harmony,
All fish in flood and fowl in flight,
   Be mirthful and make melody!
   All Gloria in excelsis cry!
Heaven, earth, sea, man, bird, and beast,—
   He that is crowned above the sky
Pro nobis puer natus est.

—Isaiah 45:8, translated from William Dunbar (Scotland, 1460-1520).