⇱ Text index

Sumer is icumen in

Link to the original source

Attribution

Translated into Quenya by Chaered in 2026.

Notes

Retrieved 2026-03-15; first posted on VL on 2026-03-16. Fairly loose translation/adaptation. Not reviewed yet.

A medieval "rota" song, in Middle English; oldest preserved copy 1261-1264.

Text

View/hide translation...

Click the tengwar text to view/hide the romanized text. Click the romanized text to view the translation. Click the translation to hide it again. Refresh page to reset everything.

Also available as a 🖵wide screen version.

Alternative versions: English (literal).

Extra

Translation notes

This was hard to fit into the procrustean bed of the meter, so some things had to be cut, recast or shuffled around.

• Elisions: le;' < lea, lir' < lire, cucu' < cucua, mundollenn; < mundollenna.

• English "cuckoo" is not the same as Quenya "cucua" (= dove/pigeon), but we currently lack an NQ word for the former, and the latter has almost the same sound. We also drop the "loudly", no way to cram "romya(ve)" into that line.

• The NQ gloss "greensward" for "lea" is not exactly the same as a meadow, but close enough.

• We get the cow to belch instead of start, not many -auya rhymes.

• Rhythmically, the "-nna" of euleryanna falls on "lhouþ".

Very literal back-translation:

Summer has come to us,
Dove, sing!
A greensward blooms, and
a seed grows
leaves pounce
Merry singing!

Sheep-bleat is to a lamb,
Cow [is] to a calf;
A bull belches,
A goat farts,
Merry singing, sing!

Dove, dove,
You sing well for me,
Do not stop now.

Sing dove, sing something;
Sing something, sing dove!

⇦ Prior / Next ⇨