The first set of words I ever learned to that tune were in Hebrew:

A transliteration:
Mah tovu, // ohalecha ya'akov, // mishkinotecha yisrael.
("Ch" is fricative as in Scottish "loch")

It translates as:
"How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your habitations, O Israel."

It is sometimes sung in the synagogue at the very beginning of a service.
--Charlie Baum