Free How Lovely Are Thy Branches: A Young Wizards Christmas by Diane Duane

lovely.”
    “It doesn’t?”
    “O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum,” Kit sang, and then stopped, looking perplexed. “I don’t know the rest.”
    “It was a German song for a long time before it was an English one,” Marcus said.
    “This was all Queen Victoria’s husband’s fault, wasn’t it?” Carl said, having wandered over into this when Matt began singing. “He put a tree up in Buckingham Palace. Started a fad.”
    “I thought it was Martin Luther’s fault,” Tom said, drifting up beside him. “Saw one out in the forest with its needles full of frost and starlight… brought it home to show the family…”
    “His fault too, yes,” Marcus said. “But listen: the song — ” He started to sing in a strong tenor.
     
    “O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
    Wie treu sind deine Blätter!
    O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
    Wie treu sind deine Blätter!
    Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit,
    Nein, auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.—
    O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
    Wie treu sind deine Blätter!”
     
    Some of the other younger wizards looked thoughtful as they started taking the German lyric apart via their understanding of it in the Speech. “He’s right, there’s nothing about ‘lovely’ in there,” Nita said.
    Kit shook his head. “How do you translate treu? ‘Faithful?’”
    Marcus nodded. “Or loyal.”
    Ronan laughed. “Like Matt said, the usual evergreen trope,” he said. “The whole non-deciduous eternal-life thing.” He had been working on a mug of Kit’s mama’s cocoa, and started to take another swig of it, then stared down into the mug with annoyance. “Bloodyell, I’m out again. Where’s this stuff going? I mean, it’s just cocoa, cocoa’s for the wee kiddies…” He got up and headed for the back door again.
    Kit grinned into his own mug. “Mama’s secret recipe strikes again…”
    Carmela glanced over at Marcus. “So it would be more like, ‘You’re green all while | the Summer glows, | and in the Winter, | when it snows — ’”
    Marcus tilted his head, thought. “Yes, that’s close enough.”
    “So where’d we get the ‘lovely?’” Dairine said.
    Marcus shrugged. “Poor translations are everywhere in popular culture,” he said. “You should see what happens to some of your TV shows when we get them at home.”
    “Please,” Carmela said. “Some of the anime dubs…!”
    “And do not even get me started on Raumschiff Enterprise —!“
    Within seconds Carmela and Marcus were off into some insanely technical discussion in the Speech of the way translation issues affecting space opera. Kit gave Nita a look as the conversation became indecipherable even in the Speech. “You see what I put up with.”
    Ronan burst out laughing as he came back with a much larger mug of cocoa. “Oh please,” he said. “Is that you I hear complaining about somebody else’s geekery, Mars Boy? Oh knower of the name of every crater on the planet? Spare me.”
    The singing started again shortly thereafter, several rival versions of the carol breaking out. Marcus and Carmela were singing in German, Dairine and her dad and Kit’s mama were upholding the more traditional American English version, and Ronan began singing an entirely different one in counterpoint, featuring the line “Thy candles shine out brightly”. “Each bough doth hold its tiny light, | that makes each toy to sparkle bright – ”
    “Wait a moment,” Nita’s dad said, “whoa, whoa, wait a moment!”
    The singing on various sides trailed off. “Candles?” said Nita’s dad. “What candles?”
    “Sure didn’t you know that lots of folks out our way put candles on their Christmas trees way back when?” Ronan said. “Though you have to wonder how many houses they burned down before the electric lights came along!”
    Marcus nodded. “In some families it is still traditional despite the risk,” he said. “One of my uncles’ families still does it. You only do it for a few minutes, though, and you watch the