Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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I always love posting a version of this old song at this time of year! You are listening to one of the earliest known secular songs in the English language! “Mirie it is while sumer ilast” was written down sometime in the first half of the 13th century, and was found miraculously on a flyleaf added to a Book of Psalms created in the late 12th century. In this song, of which we only have one verse, the narrator praises the pleasantness of summer and mourns the harshness of winter, with its long nights and threat of starvation. The song is originally in Middle English, which evolved from Old English/ Anglo-Saxon, and is generally described as being spoken from ca 1100-1500 CE.

Lyrics:
Mirie it is while sumer ilast
With fugheles song
Oc nu necheth windes blast
And weder strong
Ei ei what this nicht is long
And ich with wel michel wrong
Soregh and murne and fast


Translation:
Merry it is while summer lasts
With bird song
But now, close by, the winds blast
And the weather is strong
Oh, oh! This night is long
And I also am done much wrong
Sorrow and mourn and go without food