Summer has come - Anonymous

Summer has come, healthy and free,

Whence the brown wood is aslope;

The slender nimble deer leap,

And the path of seals is smooth.

The cuckoo sings sweet music,

Whence there is smooth restful sleep;

Gentle birds leap upon the hill,

And swift grey stags.

Heat has laid hold of the rest of the deer –

The lovely cry of curly packs!

The white extent of the strand smiles,

There the swift sea is.

A sound of playful breezes in the tops

Of a black oakwood is Drum Daill,

The noble hornless herd runs,

To whom Cuan-wood is a shelter.

Green bursts out on every herb,

The top of the green oakwood is bushy,

Summer has come, winter has gone,

Twisted hollies wound the hound.

The blackbird sings a loud strain,

To him the live wood is a heritage,

The sad angry sea is fallen asleep,

The speckled salmon leaps.

The sun smiles over every land, –

A parting for me from the brood of cares:

Hounds bark, stags tryst,

Ravens flourish, summer has come!

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Anonymous (10th century) Ireland

Source: Selections from ancient Irish poetry by Kuno Meyer, E.P. Dutton, 1911