(1)   It was a cold night   And the snow lay low   I pulled my coat tight   Against the falling down   And the sun was all   And the sun was all down   And the sun was all   And the sun was all down      I am a poor man   I haven't wealth nor fame   I have my two hands   And a house to my name   And the winter's so   And the winter's so long   And the winter's so   And the winter's so long      And all the stars were crashing 'round   As I laid eyes on what I'd found      It was a white crane   It was a helpless thing   Upon a red stain   With an arrow its wing   And it called and cried   And it called and cried so   And it called and cried   And it called and cried so      And all the stars were crashing 'round   As I laid eyes on what I'd found   My crane wife, my crane wife   My crane wife, my crane wife      Now I helped her   And I dressed her wounds   And how I held her   Beneath the rising moon   And she stood to fly   And she stood to fly away   And she stood to fly   She stood to fly away      And all the stars were crashing 'round   As I laid eyes on what I'd found   My crane wife, my crane wife   My crane wife, my crane wife      (2)   My crane wife arrived at my door in the moonlight   All star bright and tongue-tied I took her in   We were married and bells rang sweet for our wedding   And our bedding was ready when we fell in      The sound of the keening bell   To see its pain erect   Soft as fontenelle   The feathers and the thread   And all I ever meant to do was to keep you   My crane wife   My crane wife   My crane wife      We were poorly, our fortunes fading hourly   And how she loved me, she could bring it back   But I was greedy, I was vain and I forced her to weaving   On a cold loom, in a closed room down the hall      The sound of the keening bell   And to see its pain erect   Soft as fontenelle   The feathers and the thread   And all I ever meant to do was to keep you   My crane wife   My crane wife      There's a bend in the wind and it rakes at my heart   There is blood in the thread and it rakes at my heart   It rakes at my heart      My crane wife