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A team of forty stonemasons and sixty prentice workers
were putting up a bridge across the river close by Arta.
The whole day long they built the bridge, at night it was dismantled.
A bird, a kindly bird, chirped up and counselled them as follows:
Why, you must place a human corpse beneath the bridge of Arta,
and then the bridge will be secure to span the river.

Της Άρτας το γεφύρι

Σαράντα πέντε μάστοροι

Σαράντα πέντε μάστοροι κι εξήντα μαθητάδες, 
γιοφύρι εστεριώνανε στης Άρτας το ποτάμι,
ολημερίς εχτίζανε το βράδυ γκρεμιζόταν.
Πουλάκι πήγε κι έκατσε δεξιά από την καμάρα
δεν κελαηδούσε σαν πουλί, ανθρώπινα μιλούσε.
Αν δε στοιχειώσετ' άνθρωπο γιοφύρι δε στεριώνει.

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Recording information

Studio recording, 1980.

Watch a different version of the song by locals of Skiathos

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