When the moon-cradle's rocking and rocking

Where a cloud and a cloud go by

Silently rocking and rocking

The moon-cradle out in the sky.



Then comes the lad with the hazel

And the folding star's in the rack

'Night's a good herd' to the cattle,

He sings, 'She brings all things back.'



But the bond woman down by the boorie

Sings with a heart grown wild

How a hundred rivers are flowing

Between herself and her child.



'The geese, even they trudge homeward

That have their wings and the waste,

Let your thoughts be on Night the Herder,

And be quiet for a space.'



The moon-cradle's rocking and rocking,

Where a cloud and a cloud go by,

Silent rocking and rocking

The moon-cradle out in the sky.



The snipe they are crying and crying

Liadine, liadine, liadine

Where no track's on the bog they are flying:

A lonely dream will be mine