Sono abbastanza lunghe queste filastrocche di Natale in inglese tradizionali che abbiamo trovato per voi. Magari non riuscirete ad impararle a memoria, ma vi serviranno per allenare la vostra pronuncia:
Dear Santa
Dear Santa, I’m older
But, still believe in you
(At least, I believe in
The things you try, to do).
Maybe, I can’t ask for
A Tonka, or, a train.
(But, if you’d bring one of them
You know, I won’t complain).
But, what I really wish for
Is a special present
Love that can’t be “returned”
Once it has been sent.
Everybody needs a little
And some, need a lot
But, if you get a tiny bit
You still know what you got.
So Santa, drop a little
Under each Christmas tree
Then, all will get a present
From what it’s ‘posed to be.
And if there is no tree
For the alone, and poor
When you get, to their place
Just, drop, a little more.
Del “Abe” Jones
The Mahogany Tree
Christmas is here;
Winds whistle shrill,
Icy and chill,
Little care we:
Little we fear
Weather without,
Sheltered about
The Mahogany Tree.
Commoner greens,
Ivy and oaks,
Poets, in jokes,
Sing, do you see?
Good fellows’ shins
Here, boys, are found,
Twisting around
The Mahogany Tree.
Once on the boughs
Birds of rare plume
Sang, in its bloom;
Night birds are we:
Here we carouse,
Singing like them,
Perched round the stem
Of the jolly old tree.
Here let us sport,
Boys, as we sit;
Laughter and wit
Flashing so free.
Sorrows, begone!
Life and its ills,
Duns and their bills,
Bid we to flee.
Life is but short —
When we are gone,
Let them sing on,
Round the old tree.
Evenings we knew,
Happy as this;
Faces we miss,
Pleasant to see.
Kind hearts and true,
Gentle and just,
Peace to your dust!
We sing round the tree.
Care, like a dun,
Lurks at the gate:
Let the dog wait;
Happy we’ll be!
Drink every one;
Pile up the coals,
Fill the red bowls,
Round the old tree.
Drain we the cup. —
Friend, art afraid?
Spirits are laid
In the Red Sea.
Mantle it up;
Empty it yet;
Let us forget,
Round the old tree.
Come with the dawn,
Blue-devil sprite;
Leave us to-night,
Round the old tree.
William Makepeace Thackeray 1811-1863