Crazy Man Michael
traditional performed by the Incomparable Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention
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 fell to talking.
Your future, your future I will 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 curse at thee.
Michael he ranted and Michael he raved,
And beat at the four winds with his fists so.
He laughed and he cried, he shouted and he swore,
For his mad mind had trapped him with a kiss so.
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 sorcerer'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 wander and start oh.
Oh, where is the Raven that I struck down dead,
That here did lie on the ground oh?
I see that my true love with a wound so rare,
Where 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 plain,
And he longs to be far away oh.
Michael he whistles the simplest of tunes,
And asks of the wild rose their pardon.
For his true love is flown into every flower grown,
And he must be keeper of the garden.
|