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 that 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
  
  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