Text by Cecil Frances Alexander
1 Once in royal David's city
stood a lowly cattle shed,
where a mother laid her baby
in a manger for his bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ, her little child.
2 He came down to earth from heaven
who is God and Lord of all,
and his shelter was a stable,
and his cradle was a stall;
with the poor and mean and lowly,
lived on earth our Savior holy.
3 And our eyes at last shall see him,
through his own redeeming love,
for that child, so dear and gentle,
is our Lord in heav'n above,
and he leads his children on
to the place where he is gone.
4 Not in that poor, lowly stable
with the oxen standing by
we shall see him, but in heaven,
set at God's right hand on high.
Then like stars his children crowned,
all in white, his praise will sound.
"Once in Royal David's City" è un tradizionale canto natalizio, scritto da Cecil Frances Alexander (autrice delle parole) e dall'organista inglese Henry John Gauntlett (autore della musica). Il testo apparve per la prima volta nel 1848 come poesia negli "Hymns for Little Children", mentre la melodia "Irby" con cui è accompagnato fu composta l'anno seguente.
