Silent night, holy night
Christmas bonus will be brought
By Mr. Ruprecht1 the payroll troll2
The staff go to the loo in silence
Counting how many crumbs
Graciously fell from master’s table
Silent night, holy night
False comfort! Oh, how the
Director laughed mouth full to the brim!
Graciously singing to us at the divine hour:
Working peace on Earth!3
We fell for it again!
Cheap night, hurried night
Installment plan, made easy
By the angels' alleluia!
They're part of the advertising budget
For the heavenly father
Is the company president!
Silent night, holy night-
Christmas tree lit up
And a lovely little song is sung!
And a little eggnog drunk-
And the children were beaten
Until they were nicely reverent
Good night, embarrassing night –
Television play turned off
And a queasy feeling
Because love refuses to rise to the occasion!
Two more nights to sleep-
Then back to business!
Silent night, holy night-
Got through Christmas time!
Huge yawning in the wallet
Overtime still hurts!
False peace on earth
We celebrated with the management!4
Wild night, night on strike!
One of these days, not gently at all
We don't give a damn about the gentleman's generosity
Someday the people will take over the company
And the state’s leadership—
That would be a Christmas!
1. A play on Knecht Ruprecht, who is Santa's assistant in German culture, he has his own ability to reward and punish, see wikipedia.2. the German lyrics emphasize the existence of 'Hohn' inside the word Lohnbüro. Hohn is mockery or scorn, Lohnbüro is the payroll office. I couldn't think of an equivalent English joke, but if we made this line literal it would just be Mr. Ruprecht from the payroll office.3. English doesn't have a good equivalent for Arbeitsfriede. It's a compound word of 'work' and 'peace' but means peaceful labor relationships and importantly, no strikes.4. It may be relevant to say if it said 'Feierten wir mit dem Herrn' it would be 'we celebrated with the Lord', so it seems to be a play on expectations.