Mellow the moonlight to shine is beginning

Close by the window young Eileen is spinning

Bent o'er the fire her grand grandmother sitting

is crooning and moaning and drowsily knitting.

cho: Merrily cheerily noisily whirring

Swings the wheel spins 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.

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 on the stool, through the lattice step lightly

And we'll rove in the grove while the moon's shining brightly.

cho: Merrily cheerily noisily whirring

Swings the wheel spins the wheel while the foot's stirring

Sprightly and lightly and merrily ringing

Sounds the sweet voice of the young maiden singing.

The maid shakes her head, on her lips lays her fingers

Steals up from the seat, longs to go and yet lingers

A frightened glance turns to her drowsy grandmother

Puts one foot on the stool spins the wheel with the other

Lazily, easily, swings now 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

there the reel and the wheel stop their spinning and moving

The grove the young lovers by moonlight are roving.