Mellow the moonlight to shine is beginning
                                    Close by the window young Eileen is spinning
                                    Bent o'er the fire her blind grandmother sitting
                                    Crooning and moaning and drowsily knitting.
                                    Merrily cheerily noiselessly whirring
                                    Spins the wheel, rings the wheel while the foot's stirring
                                    Sprightly and lightly and merrily ringing
                                    Sounds the sweet voice of the young maiden singing.
                                    
                                    Eileen, a chara, I hear someone tapping
                                    'Tis the ivy dear mother against the glass flapping
                                    Eileen, I surely hear somebody sighing
                                    'Tis the sound mother dear of the autumn winds dying.
                                    
                                    What's the noise I hear at the window I wonder?
                                    'Tis the little birds chirping, the holly-bush under
                                    What makes you shoving and moving your stool on
                                    And singing all wrong the old song of the "Coolin"?
                                    
                                    There's a form at the casement, the form of her true love
                                    And he whispers with face bent, I'm waiting for you love
                                    Get up from the stool, through the lattice step lightly
                                    And we'll rove in the grove while the moon's shining brightly.
                                    
                                    The maid shakes her head, on her lips lays her fingers
                                    Steps up from the stool, longs to go and yet lingers
                                    A frightened glance turns to her drowsy grandmother
                                    Puts her foot on the stool spins the wheel with the other
                                    
                                    Lazily, easily, now swings the wheel round
                                    Slowly and lowly is heard now the reel's sound
                                    Noiseless and light to the lattice above her
                                    The maid steps, then leaps to the arms of her lover.
                                    
                                    Slower... and slower... and slower the wheel swings
                                    Lower... and lower... and lower the reel rings
                                    Ere the reel and the wheel stop their ringing and moving
                                    Through the grove the young lovers by moonlight are roving.