Green finch and linnet bird,

nightingale, blackbird

How is it you sing?

How can you jubilate

sitting in cages

Never taking wing?

Outside the sky waits

Beckoning, beckoning

Just beyond the bars

How can you remain

staring at the rain

Maddened by the stars?

How is it you sing anything?

How is it you sing?

Green finch and linnet bird,

nightingale, blackbird

How is it you sing?

When comes this melody

constantly flowing

Is it rejoicing or merely aloaming?

Are you discussing or fussing

Or simply dreaming?

Are you crowing?

Are you screaming?

Ringdove and robinet

is it for wages

Singing to be sold?

Have you decided

it's safer in cages

Singing when you're told?

My cage has many rooms,

damask and dark

Nothing there sings,

not even my lark

Larks never will, you know

when they're captive

Teach me to be more adaptive

Green finch and linnet bird,

nightingale, blackbird

Teach me how to sing

If I cannot fly

Let me sing