Heading for Canterbury

Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote
The droght of Marche hath perced to the rote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne;
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open yë -
So pricketh hem Nature in hir corages -
And palmeres for to seken in straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The holy blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.

Geoffrey Chaucer, General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, l.1-18. In The Canterbury Tales: Fifteen Tales and the General Prologue, edited by V.A. Kolve and Glending Olson. New York, London: W.N. Norton, 2005.

Learn to recite this in Middle English and you have quite an impressive party trick!
(There is a recording in the original pronunciation here)

Translated into modern English, the lines read

When April with its sweet showers
Has pierced the drought of March to the root,
And bathed every vein with such wetness
That has power to bring the flowers
When the west wind with his sweet breath
Has breathed into every wood and heath
The tender buds, and the young sun
Has in the sign of Aries run half its course;
And the small birds sing,
Then those who sleep all the night with open eye - 
So Nature inspires them in their hearts -
Then folk long to go on pilgrimage,
And pilgrims seek foreign shores,
For distant shrines, well known in many lands;
And especially, from every county in England
To Canterbury they come,
To seek the holy blissful martyr [Thomas a Beckett]
Who has helped them when they were sick.

But it just doesn't sound the same...