Sumer is icumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweþ sed and bloweþ med
And springþ þe wde 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!
No, the above is NOT a foreign language, unless, of course, you are not able to read the sentence you are currently reading. Then, that’s another matter.
However, if you speak and read English on a daily basis, you might be surprised to know the above is certainly English and very timely too at least for much of North America and northern Europe currently. Yes, the above Middle English poem is from a long-past century (about 1240, give or take a few years) with a slight if not pronounced Wessex dialect. It is a poem heralding the oncoming spring which will bring warmth to huts and land alike where crops and mortals will feel the sun in its all its radiant and life-giving glory.
A poem about birds…..inconceivable, you say? Isn’t poetry sustenance for the soul, commemorating eternal love, lasting achievement, trying journeys, memories of youth, triumphant births, or inevitable death? Well, you could say, the oncoming warmth in 1240 was all of those above-mentioned things and more, because it meant S-U-R-V-I-V-A-L with all capital letters. A woman or man has survived another dread winter, so let’s recite that poem again, this time by the fire!
As you can imagine, linguists, translators, English majors, most historians, and even a few anthropologists are mesmerized by this kind of discovery. It affirms their theories that language is indeed a living thing, constantly reinventing itself, evolving, exchanging vocabularies, dropping other terms, modernizing, and assembling a veritable handbook or phrasebook of nuanced pronunciations which might enhance a bartered agreement, a commitment to commerce, a detailed oath of allegiance, travel, or promise. English, like other languages, is essential BECAUSE of its growth, change, and its own history of evolution.
At Apex Translations, we understand the history, the cultural imprint, and the ever-growing vocabulary for much of the world’s spoken languages. It’s our job. The following is a translation of the above poem from Middle English to Present Day English…… just 773 years apart.
| Middle English
Sumer is icumen in, Ne swik þu nauer nu. Sing cuccu nu. Sing cuccu. |
Present Day English
Summer has come in, |
