The Oxford Book of Ballads/The Cherry-Tree Carol

First Verse
 * JOSEPH was an old man, and an old man was he,
 * when he wedded Mary in the land of Galilee.
 * Joseph and Mary walk’d through an orchard good,
 * where was cherries and berries so red as any blood.
 * Joseph and Mary walk’d through an orchard green,
 * where was berries and cherries as thick as might be seen.
 * O then bespoke Mary, so meek and so mild,
 * ‘Pluck me one cherry, Joseph, for I am with child.’
 * O then bespoke Joseph with words so unkind,
 * ‘Let him pluck thee a cherry that brought thee with child.’
 * O then bespoke the babe within his mother’s womb,
 * ‘Bow down then the tallest tree for my mother to have some.’
 * Then bow’d down the highest tree unto his mother’s hand:
 * when she cried, ‘See, Joseph, I have cherries at command!’
 * O then bespake Joseph— ‘I have done Mary wrong;
 * but cheer up, my dearest, and be not cast down.
 * ‘O eat your cherries, Mary, o eat your cherries now;
 * o eat your cherries, Mary, that grow upon the bough.’
 * Then Mary pluck’d a cherry as red as the blood;
 * then Mary went home with her heavy load.

Second verse
 * As Joseph was a-walking, he heard an angel sing:
 * ‘This night shall be born our heavenly King.
 * ‘He neither shall be born in housen nor in hall,
 * nor in the place of Paradise, but in an ox’s stall.
 * ‘He neither shall be clothéd in purple nor in pall,
 * but all in fair linen, as were babies all.
 * ‘He neither shall be rock’d in silver nor in gold,
 * but in a wooden cradle that rocks on the mould.
 * He neither shall be christen’d in white wine nor red,
 * but with fair spring water with which we were christenéd.

Third verse
 * Then Mary took her young son and set him on her knee;
 * ‘I pray thee now, dear child, tell how this world shall be.’—
 * ‘O I shall be as dead, mother, as the stones in the wall;
 * o the stones in the street, mother, shall mourn for me all.
 * ‘And upon a Wednesday my vow I will make,
 * and upon Good Friday my death I will take.
 * ‘Upon Easter-day, mother, my uprising shall be;
 * o the sun and the moon, mother, shall both rise with me!’

San Giüśep e la Madona The Cherry Tree Carol