Medieval England - Anon., ca 1225 : Miri it is while sumer ilast

[RyanVonFleming]

Hate summer -.-

[guidepost42]

That is amazng. I love it.

[CanalTal]

The angel is opening the doors of my heart... What is the key?

[osplom]

do you not think it is pretty amazing. that we are sitting here, around the world, on the internet, listening to a song which was written nearly 800 years ago. good stuff!

[creamyfilling102]

my god it's interesting as hell to see how english has changed over the last 800 years.

[SuchAnImaginationX]

This is so beautiful.

[OstrogothRome]

An executive once had a desk toy that guests found disturbing; a box that when switched on did nothing but send an arm out to switch itself back off. I fear that capitalism, by promoting unsustainable consumption fed by consumers' fear, also by going for cheap labour that renders innovation in capital uneconomic, will prove to be this sort of machine. In which case, the survivors of humankind will indeed be in Wales, the remote Himalayas, Bolivia etc.

[newsatone]

Lovely..nice upload.

[metalhaesle]

the info text belongs obviously to the song "worldes blis".

[oweioweh]

Ilike this so much, are there notes for this? where can I find them?

[hengist85]

worolde lifes; wyrce se þe mote domes ær deaþe,

[AncientHistoryBuff]

beautiful.

[PMetheney84]

Suggestion for translation into German and contemporary English:

Frölich ist's, solange der Sommer dauert (Merry it is while summer lasts)

Mit fauler Sonne (with lazy sun)

Doch nun ein naher Wind blaset (though now a near wind is blowing)

Und das Wetter stürmt (And weather strong)

Ei, ei! Die Nacht dauert lang (This night is long)

Zu jedem Recht gehört viel Unrecht (For each right there is a wrong)

Sorge und kummer kommen bald (Sorrow and mouring are coming fast)

[eynesprayer]

@PMetheney84 Your suggestions are great and I like what you did there in German; it is a beautiful version.

However, I permit myself to correct two things, if you allow. =)

"with fugheles son" -- 'fugheles' (actually very close to the German "Vogel") means bird and 'son' is not the sun, but a song. "with birdsong": "mit Vogelgesang"

"And ich with wel michel wrong" -- literally more like "and I with very great wrong" ('michel' = groß: great; 'ich' = ich: I); "und ich mit großem Fehl")

[PMetheney84]

@eynesprayer awesome. thank you very much, indeed. i just tried to use my imagination, suspecting it might not be perfect and that's what came out of. what about the sorrow and mourning line? anyway, it's a beautiful song and an interesting language.

[eynesprayer]

@PMetheney84 Your imagination clearly is capable of wonderful things and I do appreciate 'what came out'. A rather loose translation that can grasp the beauty of poetry is always worth a lot, even with some minor flaws. ;) Indeed, the last verse also carries a little negligence, considering 'fast' probably would translate to "famine" or "lent" here.

[PMetheney84]

@eynesprayer oh btw. "ich" might translate into each and not into "I" or the german "ich". that's why I interpreted the line the way i did.

[mrleedra]

@PMetheney84 'Ich' comes from Old English 'ic,' cognate to 'ich.' 'Each' derives from OE 'eac,' cf. MnGer 'auch.' In line 3 'neheth' means 'draws near;' thus, 'ein Windstoss naehert sich, und strenges Wetter.'' And the final lines are in the first person and likely indicate penance: "And I with (on account of) great wrong sorrow, mourn, and fast."

Dennoch ist es eine gute Uebersetzung :)

[mrleedra]

@JanCMichael You are quite right. Mine was an embarrassing elementary error, and I am duly chastened ;). "Eac" is of course "also, too" rather than "each." Thus, "and his broþor eac" vs."ure æghwylc sceal ende gebidan."

[090513102]

this old english sometimes sound a lot like the scandinavian languages. It's cool to think how history reflects in the language

[OstrogothRome]

Play this music whilst in the sunlit groves and valleys and forests of the mountains of Wales...then travel, if you can bear it, 200 miles east and play on a summer sunday evening.in the empty sterility of the dark shadows of London's Docklands.

In 1,000 years, the groves and valleys and trees and mountains will still be here.......

[MultiTrollHunter]

@OstrogothRome not quiet sure what point you're trying to make there? Cities are evil?

[OstrogothRome]

@MultiTrollHunter Not quite 'evil', but what they represent (ever increasing consumption of unnecessary luxuries,e.g. beautification therapies to mention just one) is ever more unsustainable. The corporatocracy that has promoted this wild consumption of ultimately unsatisfying, insecuritising consumption, has also given us the sterility of the Docklands, so in a sense Docklands sums up much of what is wrong and how we may be heading for an eco-crash if no change in economy.

[MultiTrollHunter]

@OstrogothRome I'm afraid that's the price you pay for living in a free capitalist country.

[ChuckDuke1]

what language is this? is it old english?

[GodOfUnbelief]

@ChuckDuke1 middle english

[hengist85]

@ChuckDuke1 It is actually Middle English, but from around the early 1200's, so it bears a strong resemblence to Old English.

[robby99764]

@hengist85 Early-Middle English...

[hengist85]

@robby99764 I just classified it as Middle English out of simplicity. The beginning of the 13th century bears the production of the Katherine Group texts and Layamon's Brut, both of which, while bearing strong resemblences to AS vocabulary possess strong syntactic patterns in relation to later texts. I mean the song miri it is bears more resemblence to this later type than something like the Peterborough Chronicle of the late 11th century.

[robby99764]

@hengist85 I was just joking, don't worry about it.

[Frizkiz]

Epic

[hengist85]

Mirie it is while sumer y-last

With fugheles son

Oc nu neheth windes blast

And weder strong.

Ei, ei! What this nicht is long

And ich with wel michel wrong

Soregh and murne and fast.

[KatyKatkin]

glorious.

[opopomozegerla]

Bellissimo!

[RoxxieT]

Beautiful!