Translation

Lullay, lullay, lay, lay, lullay:
my dear mother, sing lullay.
As I lay on Christmas night,
alone in my desire, it seemed to me
I saw a very lovely sight,
a girl rocking her child.
The maiden wanted to put her child
to sleep without singing;
to the child it seemed she wronged him,
and he told his mother to sing.
“Sing now, mother,” said the child,
“what is to befall me
in the future when I am grown up,
for all mothers do that.
“Every mother, [bad word] 
who knows how to watch over her cradle,
is accustomed to lull lovingly
and sing her child to sleep.
“Sweet mother, fair and gracious,
since that is so,
I pray you to lull me
and to sing something as well.
“Sweet son,” said she,
“of what should I sing?
I never new anything more about you
than Gabriel’s greeting.
“He greeted me courteously on his knee
and said ‘Hail, Mary!
Hail, full of grace, God is with thee;
thou shalt bear the Messiah.’
“I wondered greatly in my mind,
for I by no means desired a husband.
‘Mary,’ he said, ‘do not fear;
leave the God of heaven to his ways.
“‘The Holy Ghost is to do all this,’
he said without delay,
that I should bear man’s bliss
and God’s own son.
“He said, ‘Thou shalt bear a king
in king David’s seat;’
in all the house of Jacob
he should be the lord.
“He said that Elizabeth,
who until then had been barren,
‘has conceived a male child –
give me the more credence.’
“I answered gladly,
for his words pleased me,
‘Lo, I am here, God’s servant;
be it as thou hast said to me.’
“There, as he said, I bore you
on Midwinter Night,
in virginity without pain,
by the grace of almighty God.
“Where shepherds were watching in the
uplands they heard a wondrous song
of angels there, as they told them
the tidings of your birth.
“Sweet son, assuredly
I can say no more,
and if I could, I would gladly,
to do everything as you wish.”
Certainly I saw this sight,
I heard this song sung,
as I lay this Christmas Day
alone in my desire.