Hurdy-gurdy Hungarian lowlands, but was the normal term for the instrument on Csepel island directly south of Budapest. The equivalent names "ninera" and "niněra" are used in Slovakia and the Czech Republic respectively. In Russian and Ukrainian the instrument is called "wheel lyre" ("колёсная лира", "колісна ліра"). In Poland it is called "cranked lyre" (lira korbowa). "Leier", "lant", and related terms today are generally used to refer to members of the lute or lyre family, but historically had a broader range of meaning and were used for many types of stringed instruments. In her overview of the instrument's history, Palmer recorded
Hurdy Gurdy Man "singing songs of love". The song invokes "histories of ages past" with "unenlightened shadows cast" and the "crying of humanity" through "all eternity", and says tis then when the hurdy gurdy man comes singing songs of love". On his 1990 live album "The Classics Live" and in his autobiography, Donovan has said that there is also an additional verse that had been written by George Harrison that was not included on the radio single: When performing the song in concert, Donovan often relates to his audience the story of how this final verse came about. He played the song for