https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqzGZ5AaeSs&NR=1Translation by Kevess & SchwartzOn 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.
How the winds are laughing
They laugh with all their might
Laugh and laugh the whole day through
And half the summer's night.
Dona, dona, dona, dona,
Dona, dona, dona, do,
Dona, dona, dona, dona,
Dona, dona, dona, do.
"Stop complaining," said the farmer,
"Who told you a calf to be?
Why don't you have wings to fly with
Like the swallow so proud and free?"
How the winds are laughing
They laugh with all their might
Laugh and laugh the whole day through
And half the summer's night.
Dona, dona, dona, dona,
Dona, dona, dona, do,
Dona, dona, dona, dona,
Dona, dona, dona, do.
Calves are easily bound and slaughtered
Never knowing the reason why.
But whoever treasures freedom,
Like the swallow has learned to fly.
How the winds are laughing
They laugh with all their might
Laugh and laugh the whole day through
And half the summer's night.
Dona, dona, dona, dona,
Dona, dona, dona, do,
Dona, dona, dona, dona,
Dona, dona, dona, do.
Donna Donna (דאַנאַ דאַנאַ "Dana Dana", also known as דאָס קעלבל "Dos Kelbl" — The Calf) is a Yiddish theater song about a calf being led to slaughter. The song's title is a variant on Adonai, a Jewish name for God.
Dana Dana was written for the Aaron Zeitlin stage production Esterke (1940–41) with music composed by Sholom Secunda. The lyrics, score, parts, and associated material are available online in the Yiddish Theater Digital Archives. The lyric sheet is in typewritten Yiddish[3] and handwritten Yiddish lyrics also appear in the piano score. The text underlay in the score and parts is otherwise romanized in a phonetic transcription oriented toward stage German.
The orchestra plays the Dana Dana melody at several points in Esterke. The original is 2/4, in G minor for a duo of a man and a woman, choral with the orchestral accompaniment. Secunda wrote "Dana-" for the orchestral score and "Dana Dana" for the vocal scores. The Yiddish text was written with roman alphabet. He wrote for the choral score "andantino" (some slowly) and "sempre staccato" (play staccato always). The melody of the introduction was also used at the end of the song. He wrote "piu mosso" (more rapidly) for the refrain and some passages that emphasize the winds. First, a woman (Secunda wrote "she") sings four bars and then the man (Secunda wrote "he") sings the next four. They sing together from the refrain. Although singing the third part of "Dana Dana" (="Dana Dana Dana Dana...") the man sometimes sings lower than the melody using disjunct motions. The melody is refrained. Then "he" sings the melody, and "she" sometimes sings "Dana", other times sings "Ah" with a high voice or technical passage. Secunda wrote "molto rit." (gradually very slowly) for the ending of the first verse. There are some difference between the original and the melody that are well known. Secunda wrote "ha ha ha" for the choral score with the broken chords.
Secunda translated Dana Dana into English (changing the vocalization of dana to dona), but this version failed to gain popularity. The lyrics were translated again in the mid-1950s by Arthur Kevess and Teddi Schwartz, and the song became well known with their text. It became especially popular after being recorded by Joan Baez in 1960, Donovan in 1965 and Patty Duke in 1968.
Dana Dana has been translated into and recorded in many other languages including German, French, Japanese, Hebrew, and Russian. It has been sung by performers including André Zweig, Chava Alberstein, Esther Ofarim, Theodore Bikel, Karsten Troyke, Sumi Jo, Claude François, and Hélène Rollès together with Dorothée.Wikipedia
