Page 15 - Reece-Trapp Sumer is icumen

Sumer is icumen in
Sumer is icumen in is the incipit of a medieval English round or rota of the mid-13th century; it is also known variously as the Summer Canon and the Cuckoo Song.
The line translates approximately to Summer has come in or Summer has arrived. The song is written in the Wessex dialect of Middle English. Although the composer’s identity is unknown today, it may have been W. de Wycombe. The manuscript in which it is preserved was copied between 1261 and 1264.
It is sometimes called the Reading Rota because the earliest known copy of the composition, a manuscript written in mensural notation, was found at Reading Abbey. The British Library now retains this manuscript. A copy of the manuscript in stone relief is displayed on the wall of the ruined chapter house of Reading Abbey.
Middle English
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
Modern English
Summer has arrived,
Loudly sing, cuckoo!
The seed is growing
And the meadow is blooming,
And the wood is coming into leaf now, Sing, cuckoo!
The ewe is bleating after her lamb, The cow is lowing after her calf;
The bullock is prancing,
The billy-goat farting, [or “The stag ca- vorting”]
Sing merrily, cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo,
You sing well, cuckoo, Never stop now.
Sing, cuckoo, now; sing, cuckoo; Sing, cuckoo; sing, cuckoo, now!