Uploaded July 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
A clip of Celtic band Emigre performing The Leaving of Liverpool in South Carolina, 2019. Despite appearances, no dancers were harmed in the filming of this video! Austin Gregory on guitar, Saro Lynch-Thomason on vocals and drum, and Laurie Fisher on fiddle. For more information and song samples, go to sarosings.com/song/ballad-singing/emigre-celtic-music-band
A clip of Celtic band Emigre performing The Leaving of Liverpool in South Carolina, 2019. Despite appearances, no dancers were harmed in the filming of this video! Austin Gregory on guitar, Saro Lynch-Thomason on vocals and drum, and Laurie Fisher on fiddle. For more information and song samples, go to sarosings.com/song/ballad-singing/emigre-celtic-music-band







![Mirie it is While Sumer Ilast 2022
An updated version with more accurate pronunciation than last years video!
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“Mirie it is while sumer ilast” is the earliest known secular song in the English language.
Written down sometime in the first half of the 13th century, it was found miraculously on a flyleaf added to a Book of Psalms created in the late 12th century. We have the melody, and one verse.
This song is all about the hardships of winter, and remembering the pleasantness of summer. The author laments the harsh weather, the long hours of darkness, hunger and sorrow.
Here are the original words in Middle English:
[M]Irie 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.
Due to deterioration of the flyleaf and the ambiguity of the notation due to inexact penmanship, there is no way to have a completely accurate interpretation of the “Mirie it is…”
What I perform here is based on the interpretation of Ian Pittaway, who has done a great deal of work wrestling with the various interpretive possibilities of the song. You can read a detailed essay about his work with “Mirie” here: https://earlymusicmuse.com/mirie-it-i...
I take just a few purposeful liberties with the melody, most specifically singing the last few notes of the verse differently than interpreted by Pittaway. Mirie it is While Sumer Ilast 2022](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eiHC_XifwNQ/mqdefault.jpg)


