On a wagon bound for market, there's a calf with a mournful eye, high above him there's a swallow, winging swiftly through the sky. Refrain: How the winds are laughing, they laugh with all their might, laugh and laugh the whole day through, and half the summers night, Dona dona Stop complaining! said the farmer, Who told you a calf to be? Why don't you have wings to fly with like a swallow so proud and free ? . ..dona dona... Calves are easily bound and slaughtered, never knowing the reason why, but who ever treasures freedom, like the swallow has learned to fly.