Down in yon forest there stands a great hall.
The bells of paradise I heard them ring;
for Jesus the Prince of Peace is born,
and I love my Lord Jesus above anything.
I heard them ring! I heard them ring!

Down in the city have huddled the poor.
The bells of paradise I heard them ring.
At night they seek warmth out on pavements by doors,
and I wonder how this seems to Jesus the King?
I heard them ring! I heard them ring!

In many lands there is fear and alarm.
The bells of paradise I heard them ring.
The child dies in pain while its mother looks on;
so why do heaven’s bells continue to ring?

Though there is famine and outrage and war,
the bells of paradise still ring and ring.
The weak are down trodden, the helpless and poor
are destroyed. Where’s the peace that the Prince of Peace brings?

O sacred head sore wounded with piercing crown of thorn.
What sorrow mars thy grandeur! Can death thy bloom deflower?
O countenance, whose splendour the hosts of heaven adore.

Up, on the hill see the crucified King!
He conquered all evil and killed off death’s sting;
he lives evermore God’s Kingdom to bring;
And so how can the bells of heaven cease to ring?
I hear them ring! I hear them ring!

Words adapted by Berj Topalian