Within the fire and out upon the sea

Crazy Man Michael was walking

He met with a raven with eyes black as coals

And shortly they were a-talking



"Your future, your future, I would tell to you

Your future, you often have asked me

Your true love will die by your own right hand

And Crazy Man Michael will cursed be"



Michael he ranted and Michael he raved

And beat at the four winds with his fists-oh

He laughed and he cried, he shouted and he swore

For his mad mind had trapped him with a kiss-oh



"You speak with an evil, you speak with a hate

You speak for the devil that haunts me

For is she not the fairest in all the broad land?

Your sorceror's words are to taunt me"



He took out his dagger of fire and of steel

And struck down the raven through the heart-oh

The bird fluttered long and the sky it did spin

And the cold earth did wonder and start-oh



"Oh, where is the raven that I struck down dead

That here'd lie on the ground-oh?

I see but my true love with a wound so red"

Her lover's heart it did pound-oh



Crazy Man Michael, he wanders and walks

And talks to the night and the day-oh

But his eyes they are sane and his speech it is clear

And he longs to be far away-oh



Michael he whistles the simplest of tunes

And asks the wild woods their pardon

For his true love is flown into every flower grown

And he must be keeper of the garden