With so much bad news about the environment around just now, including the decline in Cuckoo numbers, I’m so delighted that the bird which visits my own patch is in better song than ever this year.
So much so that I’m strongly reminded of the medieval English poem “Summer is a-coming in”, a version of which is given below:
Svmer 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
Pes
Sing cuccu
Sing cuccu nu
The modern translation is as follows:
Summer is a-coming in,
Loud sing cuckoo!
Grows seed, and blows mead(ow),
And springs the wood new–
Sing, cuckoo!
Ewe bleats after lamb,
Lows after calf cow;
Bullock starts, buck farts,
Merry sing, cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo, well sing thou, cuckoo:
Nor cease thou never now!
Sing cuckoo, now, sing cuckoo,
Sing cuckoo, sing cuckoo, now!
