All alone in her pagoda
Waiting for her sailor man
Poor Butterfly would sit and cry
Someone came along and showed her
How to keep him in Japan
He just came back for a day
But she said, "I guess you'll stay"

Poor little Butterfly has learned to roll her eye
And when she shimmies she's as cute as she can be
Say when this baby shakes, she's got just what it takes
To keep her sailor boy from going out to sea
She knew the Ballin' Jack was bound to bring him back
She learned to do an Oriental dance how! wow! wow!
You ought to see, you ought to see
The way she shakes her Japan knee
Poor little Butterfly is a fly gal now

In her Japanese pagoda
In her lover's fond embrace
Poor Butterfly has dried her eye
'Mid the cherry blossom odor
She keeps smiling in his face
She knows that her sailor boy
Will never say "ships ahoy"