As is well known (see, e.g., the fine print in _Rise Up Singing_ s.v. "The Flower Carol"), the familiar tune of "Good King Wenceslas" traditionally belonged to a *spring* carol, _Tempus Adest Floridum_, whose English translation seems also to be traditional. The Christmas words were written by a 19th-century clergyman named John M. Neale. Turnabout is fair play, and some years ago I found that the first stanza of _Wenceslas_ existed in a Latin translation, which I thought charming. I never expected to see the rest of it, but a Google search on the first line brought it up right away in its entirety, and I thought it would make a good Christmas present to the Mudcat:

REX WENCESLAUS
(Translated by Stephen A. Hurlbut)

Sanctus Wenceslaus rex
Stephani ad festum,
agrum vidit nivibus
gelidis congestum.
Vidit pauperem sibi
ligna colligentem,
qui sub luna splendida
sensit se frigentem.

"Huc, O puer, siste huc,
dicens, si cognoris,
quis sit, ubi habitet
pauper iste foris?"
"Ere, procul habitat,
subter illum montem,
silvae iuxta limitem,
ad Agnetis fontem."

"Affer carnem, vinum fer,
lignum afferamus,
ut nos illi pauperi
cenam praebeamus."
Rex et puer prodibant
animo aequali,
vento flante acriter
tempore brumali.

"Ere, nox fit atrior,
ventus vi augetur;
plus non possum, nescio cur,
valde cor terretur."
"Puer mi, vestigia tu
sequere libenter;
hiems saeva laedet te
minus violenter."

Puer regem sequitur,
unde nix discessit;
fervor glaebis inerat,
ubi sanctus pressit.
Hoc scitote, divites,
Christum qui amatis,
Vos beate eritis,
si quem vos beatis.