Mellow the moonlight to shine is beginning
Close by the window young Eileen is spinning
Bent o'er the fire her blind grandmother sitting
Is crooning and moaning and drowsily knitting
Merrily, cheerily, noiselessly whirring
Swings the wheel, spins the wheel, while the foot's stirring
Sprightly and brightly and airily ringing
Thrills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing
"Eileen, a chara, I hear someone tapping"
"Tis the ivy, dear mother, against the glass flapping"
"Eily, I surely hear somebody sighing"
"Tis the sound, mother dear, of the autumn winds dying"
Merrily, cheerily, noiselessly whirring
Swings the wheel, spins the wheel, while the foot's stirring
Sprightly and brightly and airily ringing
Thrills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing
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
We'll rove in the grove while the moon's shining brightly"
Merrily, cheerily, noiselessly whirring
Swings the wheel, spins the wheel, while the foot's stirring
Sprightly and brightly and airily ringing
Thrills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing
Slower and slower and slower the wheel swings
Lower and lower and lower the reel rings
Ere the reel and the wheel stopped their ringing and moving
Through the grove the young lovers by moonlight are roving