Transcribed from Ed Miller's singing on "At Home with the Exiles" - some words may be wrong, especially the ones I've put in italics.
MISTRESS (Nancy Nicolson)
Her eyes are dark, her breast is deep, That steals a wedded woman's sleep, That tempts good men into her keep, And will not let them free. The moon upon her shoulder gleams, A siren o'er the ocean's treams, Who whispers in a seaman's dreams, No mistress have but me.
My father was a skeely skipper, kind as he was brave, He claimed his friends the tide and wind, a brother was the wave, And his vessel she was clinker built, stout and strong and sound, But they were taken by the sea – no man nor boat was found.
Her eyes are dark ...
My brother joined a merchant man, to trade for foreign lands, He smiled and said "don't worry", as my mother wrung her hands, But in shorter than a twelve month, she wrung her handkerchief, For her Billy was washed overboard – ta'en by the brazen sea.
Her eyes are dark ...
Well I wouldna' court a sailor lad, a welder is my man, But he's going to the oil rigs, and here an' greet I stand, For I see an ancient omen, a sign o' dule and care, I see the new moon sae there – with the old moon in her arms.