In the year 1914 on Christmas Day,
On the Western front the guns all died away.
And lying in the mud on bags of sand
We heard the German sing from No Man's Land.
He had a tenor voice so clear and true;
The words were strange, but every note we knew.
A-soaring o'er the living, dead and damned,
That soldier sang of peace from No Man's Land.
Oh, Silent night, no cannons roar.
A King is born of peace for ever more,
All's calm, all's bright, all brothers hand in hand,
A Soldier's song of peace from No Man's Land.
They slowly left their trenches, we left ours.
Beneath tin hats the smiles bloomed like wild flowers.
With photos, cigarettes and flasks of wine,
We made a soldier's peace on that front line.
Their singer was a lad of twenty-one;
We begged another song before the dawn,
And sitting amid carnage, death and fear,
He sang again the song all longed to hear.
Oh, Silent night, no cannons roar.
A King is born of peace for ever more,
All's calm, all's bright, all brothers hand in hand,
A Soldier's song of peace from No Man's Land.
In the morning all the guns roared in the rain,
And they killed us and we killed them again
With bayonet, bomb and bullet, gas and flame
And neither them nor us at at all to blame.
There was heavy fighting all throughout that day.
For one night's peace we bitterly did pay.
That night they charged, we fought them hand to hand
And I shot the lad who sang from No Man's Land.
Oh, Silent night, no cannons roar,
A king is born of peace for ever more.
All's calm, all's bright, all brothers hand in hand,
A soldier's song of peace from No Man's Land.
O Silent night, Holy night,
And his ghostly voice still rings
As the young dead soldier sings
Where the Captains and the Kings
Built No Man's Land.
On the Western front the guns all died away.
And lying in the mud on bags of sand
We heard the German sing from No Man's Land.
He had a tenor voice so clear and true;
The words were strange, but every note we knew.
A-soaring o'er the living, dead and damned,
That soldier sang of peace from No Man's Land.
Oh, Silent night, no cannons roar.
A King is born of peace for ever more,
All's calm, all's bright, all brothers hand in hand,
A Soldier's song of peace from No Man's Land.
They slowly left their trenches, we left ours.
Beneath tin hats the smiles bloomed like wild flowers.
With photos, cigarettes and flasks of wine,
We made a soldier's peace on that front line.
Their singer was a lad of twenty-one;
We begged another song before the dawn,
And sitting amid carnage, death and fear,
He sang again the song all longed to hear.
Oh, Silent night, no cannons roar.
A King is born of peace for ever more,
All's calm, all's bright, all brothers hand in hand,
A Soldier's song of peace from No Man's Land.
In the morning all the guns roared in the rain,
And they killed us and we killed them again
With bayonet, bomb and bullet, gas and flame
And neither them nor us at at all to blame.
There was heavy fighting all throughout that day.
For one night's peace we bitterly did pay.
That night they charged, we fought them hand to hand
And I shot the lad who sang from No Man's Land.
Oh, Silent night, no cannons roar,
A king is born of peace for ever more.
All's calm, all's bright, all brothers hand in hand,
A soldier's song of peace from No Man's Land.
O Silent night, Holy night,
And his ghostly voice still rings
As the young dead soldier sings
Where the Captains and the Kings
Built No Man's Land.
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