# Yiddish: דאַנאַ



## Tochka

In a folk-singing group this morning, people were wondering about the meaning of the repeated word/sound "dona dona" in the song, Dona Dona--sometimes rendered Donna Donna, but originally transliterated Dana Dana.  The sound in question is rendered דאַנאַ in Yiddish.

The song was originally in a Yiddish play, Esterke, produced by Aaron Zeitlin in the early 1940's.  A 1950's English version of the song was made popular by Joan Baez in the 1960's.  The original Yiddish song was apparently called דאָס קעלבל (the calf).

A Yiddish speaker in the singing group didn't recognize the English transliteration as any Yiddish word.  This could be due to a poor transliteration (she was only considering "dona" rather than "dana") or it could be that this "word" is really just serving as a nonsense sound to sing.

Does anyone know the story behind this word/sound in the song?
The Wikipedia write-up on the song is at en.wikipedia  dot org/wiki/Dona,_Dona


Thanks for any help!


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## duvija

UH, I used to sing it in Yiddish school in Uruguay when I was a child (last century, of course) but never thought about the meaning. We took it as nonsense.


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## Tochka

Thank you.  That was always my assumption, too.


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## OzzyM

Of what I know, it does have (sort of) meaning: that's the voice the carter makes to urge the horse walk.

נחמה הנדל ... תירגמה את הטקסט המקורי מיידיש והסבירה שבמקור ... שרים "דאנה דאנה", שהיא קריאת עידוד מקובלת של האיכר-העגלון לסוס המושך את העגלה שבה מוטל העגל.​Haaretz

נראה כי משמעות המילים שבפזמון המקורי הן הקריאות שבהן נהגו העגלונים לעודד את סוסיהם המושכים את עגלתם. ​Wikipedia - אהרן צייטלין


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## Tochka

Much appreciated, duvija and Haaretz!


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