I thought I'd get the jump on Beltane and talk about everyone's favourite May Day song (even if you're not on Summer Isle) as it is a great piece of history. 'Sumer is icumen in' also known as the 'cuckoo song' embodies that glorious sense of happiness that the first real warm days offer us. Here in the north we still can't quite believe that summer is a-coming, which makes me want to sing it even more.

This is the earliest secular song recorded in English in the Middle Ages and appears in a 13th century manuscript along with a Latin version. Here's the original lyrics:

Sumer is icumen in
Lhude sing cuccu
Groweþ sed
and bloweþ med
and springþ þe w[u]de nu
Sing cuccu

Awe bleteþ after lomb
lhouþ after calue cu
Bulluc sterteþ
bucke uerteþ
murie sing cuccu
Cuccu cuccu
Wel singes þu cuccu
ne swik þu nauer nu

Sing cuccu nu, Sing cuccu.
Sing cuccu, Sing cuccu nu


It's been translated in a variety of ways, so here's my go at it:

Summer is a-coming in
Loudly sing, cuckoo!
Grow, you seeds,
And blow, you weeds,
It's spring -- the woods are new.
Sing, cuckoo!

The ewe bleats to her lamb so mild,
The cow lows to her child.
The bull he starts,
The goat he farts,
We're merry -- sing cuckoo!

Cuckoo, cuckoo,
Well you sing, cuckoo;
There's no work left for you!


Sing cuckoo, you! Sing, cuckoo!

Wouldn't it be great if medieval traditions like this song caught on again? The Telegraph just published a story about the resurgence of Beltane -- and the National Theatre is putting on a new translation of Everyman by Carol Duffy -- it could happen!

Oh, and the Latin version? It's much less fun though nonetheless farming related. You can read it here: Perspice Christicola.

Image: "Sumer is icumen in - Summer Canon (Reading Rota) (mid 13th C), f.11v - BL Harley MS 978" by Image taken from Summer Canon [Reading Rota].Originally published/produced in England [Reading Abbey, co. Berks.]; mid 13th century.Held and digitised by the British Library, and uploaded to Flickr Commons.