Dona Dona

[ecs05norway]

http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/utena/donadona.htm

This is not actually a Japanese song, but originally written in Yiddish for a stage play in 1940.

A very well-known English version was done by Joan Baez in the 1950's.


On 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 the their might
Laugh and laugh the whole day through
And half the summer's night
Donna Donna Donna Donna
Donna Donna Donna Don
Donna Donna Donna Donna
Donna Donna Donna Don
"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 the their might
Laugh and laugh the whole day through
And half the summer's night
Donna Donna Donna Donna
Donna Donna Donna Don
Donna Donna Donna Donna
Donna Donna Donna Don
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 the their might
Laugh and laugh the whole day through
And half the summer's night
Donna Donna Donna Donna
Donna Donna Donna Don
Donna Donna Donna Donna
Donna Donna Donna Don

[Fuukanou]

The whole "the song was translated into Japanese from another language for an anime/game etc. and then someone on the site translated the Japanese translation rather than the original" case happens a lot. This is acceptable for the site as unfortunately due to permission problems we cannot post someone else's translation without their explicit permission, and as a result I cannot add the lyrics you have posted.

[EJTranslations]

Even leaving aside the permission question, what we want on this site is a direct translation of what the words on the left side of the screen say, regardless of whether they themselves are translated from another language. We have, for example, a few instances where a Japanese theme song of an anime has been translated into another language such as Spanish or Portuguese for an international version and those lyrics have been posted to the site, and I wouldn't accept a translation of the Japanese lyrics as a translation for those versions. Similarly, for songs originally in English that have Japanese versions that are on this site, I wouldn't accept someone submitting the original English lyrics as a translation.