D'où Viens-tu Bergère

 

"D'où viens-tu bergère?"

Where are you from?  Where are you going?

This lovely old nativity scene came with my parents from the U.K. 

when they immigrated to Canada in 1951,

with my two eldest brothers, 

Andrew, 3 and Simon 1.

It was constructed by the daughter of their dear friends and neighbours Godfrey and Hildegard Koenig,

a young teenager named Hildy.

I don't know enough about how or when the Koenigs arrived in the U.K.

except that they were Austrian, and given the timing, I imagine that they came just before or during the Second World War.

The crèche is comprised of 

paper figures mounted onto wooden shapes cut with a jigsaw. It would have been a lot of fiddly work.

Fiddly work that has held up for some time, at least most of it. A few of the minor characters have been lost along the way. It has moved a fair distance.

I have calculated that it has been assembled by someone in my family for

seventy-five Christmases, 

and has travelled from:

Taplow, England

to 

Toronto, Ontario

to

 Auckland, New Zealand

to

Don Mills, Ontario

to 

Peterborough County, Ontario.

"Where do you come from, shepherdess, where do you come from? 
I come from the stable, I have just been walking there;
I have seen a miracle happen this evening."

❆

D'où Viens-tu Bergère

D’où viens-tu, bergère, d’où viens-tu? (bis) —Je viens de l’étable, de m’y promener; J’ai vu un miracle ce soir arriver.	Where do you come from, shepherdess, where do you come from? (twice) —I come from the stable, I have just been walking there; I have seen a miracle happen this evening.
Qu’as-tu vu, bergère, qu’as-tu vu? (bis) —J’ai vu dans la crèche un petit enfant Sur la paille fraîche mis bien tendrement.	What did you see, shepherdess, what did you see? —I saw in the manger a little child Placed very tenderly on the fresh straw.
Rien de plus, bergère, rien de plus? (bis) —Saint Joseph, son père, Saint Jean, son parrain, Saint’-Marie sa mère, qui l’aime si bien.	Nothing more, shepherdess, nothing more? —St Joseph, his father, St John, his godfather, St Mary his mother, who loves him so well.
Rien de plus, bergère, rien de plus? (bis) —´Y a le bœuf et l’âne qui sont par devant Et de leur haleine réchauffent l’enfant.	Nothing more, shepherdess, nothing more? —There’s the ox and the ass who are in front And who warm the child with their breath.
Rien de plus, bergère, rien de plus? (bis) —´Y a trois petits anges descendus du ciel, Chantant les louanges du Père éternel. *traditional French Carol	Nothing more, shepherdess, nothing more? —There are three little angels come down from heaven, Singing the praises of the eternal Father.