Dona, Dona

"Dana Dana" was written for the Aaron Zeitlin stage production Esterke[1] (1940–41) with music composed by Sholom Secunda. The lyrics, score, parts, and associated material are available online in the Yiddish Theater Digital Archives.[2] The lyric sheet is in typewritten Yiddish[3] and handwritten Yiddish lyrics also appear in the piano score.[4] The text underlay in the score and parts is otherwise romanized in a phonetic transcription that appears oriented toward stage German.[5][6] The YIVO standardized transliteration system[7] was not then in widespread use, and many Yiddish transliterations looked like German, to which the Yiddish language is closely related.

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" (somewhat 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." (suddenly much more slowly) for the ending of the first verse. There are some differences between the original and the melody that are well known. Secunda wrote "ha ha ha" for the choral score with the broken chords.

There are various views as to the meaning of the Yiddish word Dana, repeated sixteen times in each chorus. Some believe it to be a nonsense word. A comment appearing in the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz (ref https://www.haaretz.co.il/misc/1.1256045), gives the meaning of Dana as the sound that was commonly made by the guide of a horse-drawn cart to encourage the horse to continue to step forward as it drags its heavy load. According to the comment in Haaretz, the translation of the word Dana (from Yiddish to Hebrew) was provided by Kol Israel in 1962, when the song was performed by Nechama Hendel. In the John Camden Hotten slang dictionary, the word Dana related to a nightman's or dustman's cart in old German / Austrian slang. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42108/42108-h/42108-h.htm

"Donna Donna"
Single by Claude François
from the album Donna Donna / Les choses de la maison
A-side	"Donna, Donna"
B-side	"Du Pain et du beurre / Je sais / Les cloches sonnaient"
Released	1964-1965
Recorded	1964
Genre	Folk music
Length	2:32
Label	Philips
Songwriter(s)	French lyrics by Vline Buggy, Claude François

"Donna Donna"
Single by Donovan
from the album What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid
A-side	"Donna, Donna"
B-side	"Car Car / (alternatively) Josie"
Released	1965
Recorded	1965
Genre	Folk music
Length	2:56
Songwriter(s)	Sholom Secunda, Aaron Zeitlin. English lyrics by Arthur Kevess and Teddi Schwartz

"Donna Donna"
Single by C4
A-side	"Donna, Donna"
Released	1998
Recorded	1998
Genre	Dance music / disco
Length	3:31
Songwriter(s)	French lyrics by Vline Buggy, Claude François

Secunda's English version

Secunda translated "Dana Dana" into English language (changing the vocalization of 'dana' to 'dona'), but this version didn't gain much attention.

Joan Baez version

The lyrics were translated once again in the mid-1950s, this time 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 in her album Joan Baez. In her version, the song is retitled "Donna, Donna" (doubling the n"). This became very popular and later versions also used the double "n". The song became a staple of Baez and used in the human rights protest movement in the 1960s.

Claude François version

In 1964, the song was recorded in French language by French singer Claude François as "Donna, Donna" reaching the top of the French Singles Charts for two consecutive weeks in December 1964. François co-wrote the French lyrics with Vline Buggy. The song also known by its longer title "Donna, Donna (Le Petit Garçon)" is a completely revamped version lyricwise, as it no longer describes a helpless calf being led to its slaughter, as in the original Yiddish version, but is rather about the troubles of an aspiring young boy growing up dreaming about his own future. In the last verse, in an autobiographical twist, Claude François alludes to himself by singing the verse as "ce petit garçon que j'étais" (this small boy that I was...).

Donovan version

Very soon after the Claude François version, the Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan recorded another very popular cover of Baez' version in 1965. The track appeared on his album What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid. The title is also "Donna, Donna", thus reinforcing further the popular "Donna" rather than the original transliteration "Dona".

Hebrew version

"Dana Dana" has been translated from Yiddish into Hebrew as "Lama Dona" and interpreted by Rika Zaraï. Zaraï went on also to launch a French oriental dance version in her album Hava.

Translations

The song was recorded in many other languages as well including German, French, Swedish, Japanese, Hebrew, Russian, Italian, Catalan and Vietnamese. In Vietnamese language, the lyrics was translated metaphorically from French version by Trần Tiến, a well-known musician in Vietnam. This version was performed by a girlband name Tam Ca Áo Trắng (Trio of schoolgirls). There is also a less popular Vietnamese version called "Tiếc thương" (Mourning) that expresses the mourning of a man whose lover died at the young age.

• Secunda's typed Yiddish lyrics
• Secunda's handwritten romanized transcription (which differs here and there from the Yiddish lyric sheet) together with the music on several of the documents