When owls call the breathless moon We've been rambling all the night Who will go down to the shady groves The songs of birds seem to fill the wood We've been rambling all the night And so they linked their hands and dance "A garland gay we bring you here We've been rambling all the night We've been rambling all the night
When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair.
In the blue veil of the night
The shadows of the trees appear
Amidst the lantern light.
And sometime of this day
And now returning back again
We bring a garland gay.
And summon the shadows there
And tie a ribbon on those sheltering
In the springtime of the year
That when the fiddler plays
All their voices can be heard
Long past their woodland days
And sometime of this day
And now returning back again
We bring a garland gay.
Round in circles, and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
When all the shade are gone
And at your door we stand
It is a sprout well budded out
The work of our Lord's hand."
And sometime of this day
And now returning back again
We bring a garland gay.
And sometime of this day
And now returning back again
We bring a garland gay.
