Slightly drunk, just a bit,
I drove through the wood,
And I sang for my health
while the going was good.

And I knew how to sing
foolish songs, ‘tis true:
Oh black eyes, black eyes,
how have I loved you...

And they shook, and they raced,
and they trotted along,
And they flung mud in my face
while I sang my song,

But I’d swallow my spit
with the mud they would fling,
And I’d have some more wine,
and again I would sing:

Oh black eyes, black eyes,
how I loved you - that song.
But I finished all
that I took along,

And I shook my head,
so the wine would clear,
And I looked ahead
and whistled at what I see here:

A forest that won’t let past a wall black as night.
The horses are backing up, trying to turn, trying to flee...
I don’t see a damn thing! Where’s the track? Where’s the light?
Pine needles reach my bones as they tear at me.

My lead horse, my love,
save me then, I say!
Where are you going, brother?
Why backing away?

The branches drip down
stinking rain to the earth -
And a wolf has dived
under my wheeler’s girth!

What a drunken fool, filled his eyes with wine,
For it is my death and I don’t dare fly!
They have stolen an ace from that deck of mine
And such an ace without which I die!

I scream at the wolves:
Hell burn you all to ash!
And my horses are driven
by fear’s lash.

I crack the whip,
beat their sweating sides,
And I sing to the wind:
Black eyes, black eyes...

Hoof-thunder, and wheel-scream, and a wild dance
That the jingle bells hanging up in the arch play...
Oh, I’ll kill you, my horses, my very last chance;
Come, friends, and come, enemies, and carry us away...

From that wild chase
all my booze had flown.
Up the mountain face
we went on axles alone.

Sweat ran off their sides,
raced off in rain all about;
They slowed down and stopped
gasping and coughed the dust out.

I turned to my beaten horses,
that did not fail my trust,
And I bowed to them low,
down to the very dust.

I unloaded the cart,
and I led them downhill.
God save you, my horses,
that I walk alive still.

What had sunk, what had floated,
what had risen and set...
Life threw me around
but not too far yet...

Or perhaps the way
I sang of you wasn’t right,
Eyes so black,
tablecloth so white...