Theodor Storm's 'Christmas Eve'

I walked into the strange town sadly,

thinking of the children I had left at home.

It was Christmastime; all the streets rang out

with the sounds of happy children and trade.

Then, as the stream of people drew me on,

a hoarse, new voice came to me from the night.

'Buy it, kind sir!' A meager hand reached up

and held in front of me a homespun toy.

I felt startled and, in the lantern light,

saw only the shape of a pale child's face;

what age and gender the speaker might be

I could not tell in my confused surprise. 

Only from the low stoop on which he sat --

I hear him still, as though it hurt to speak;

'Buy it, kind sir!' he called and called again;

but no one seemed to hear him or to mind.

And me? Was it clumsiness, was it shame

at having dealings with a beggar-boy?

Before my fumbling hand could find my purse,

the small voice in the wind had disappeared.

Later, when I was alone with myself,

a fear rose in me, and it seized my heart,

as though my own child sat upon that stoop

and cried for food, while I turned round and fled.

'Weihnachtsabend,' Theodor Storm, 1852

Translation by Frank Beck

Theodor Storm (1817-1888) is best known among English speakers for his novellas, including The Rider on the White Horse (Der Schimmelreiter), which was translated by American poet James Wright. In the German-speaking world, he is equally famous as a poet.

Storm's writing was deeply rooted in the North Sea town of Husum, Schleswig-Holstein, where he lived for most of his life, just as Thomas Hardy's works were in England's West Country. The two writers shared an affection for traditional ways, a free-thinker's assessment of man's place in the universe, and a concern about the inequities of their societies -- something Storm's work as a judge drove home to him.

This is one of the most beloved Christmas poems in German. I have not replicated Storm's intricate rhyme scheme, which helps to make his poem compelling, but I have echoed its cadences as well as I could.

• Christian Rode reads Storm's poem
• 'Weihnachtsabend' in German
• Storm audiobooks in English and German
  
• Website of the Theodor Storm Society

Theodor Storm's former home in Husum, now a museum