Joan Baez - Donna Donna | Lyrics Meaning

Let me know what you think the lyrics mean !
I do not own anything. All credits go to the right owners. No copyright intended.
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

[@zairovdastanbek8175]

If you listen and sing this song, you'll get really best relax

[@ReisenderBecauseOfLuv]

I sang it without thinking. Formerly I forgot to sing . After singing alone, after years.... At this song.. my voice just cleaned up I will have to practice. But it's not broken. I didn't use it anymore. I always said to people which doesn't talk anymore.. try! Just do it! It's like an old trumpet after being years in the dust.. you have to clean it. By using it. I'm so happy!

[@vladimirandjelkov3188]

❤❤❤❤

[@jolazlasu6147]

I'm so happy for you, HolgerSchmidt! Music brings colour to our lives. I've been singing all my life and feel would lose part of myself if I couldn't one day. And it doesn't matter if somebody listens to me. I keep creating my own world collecting meaningful songs like this one. Greetings from Poland :-)

[@raizahmed7535]

Love... lol lol lol lol k.k.​@@vladimirandjelkov3188

[@ruthjacobs2714]

when you have the voice of an angel, even the most tragic events can be listened to ...stop listening and hear the message

[@1DaTJo]

The body is the calf, the soul is the swallow. One is bound and slaughtered, the other is always proud and free.

[@ReisenderBecauseOfLuv]

Now I know... Whole universe opened with... 49 earth years Nobody told me all Now I can live! ❤️

[@ReisenderBecauseOfLuv]

I have another analyze .. The cows are the blind earth "Muggels" . They do what them is told. They can't fly Indigos or hitchhikers are the swallows!

[@anupdhar5514]

then.... who is the farmer?

[@kelseymathias3881]

@@anupdhar5514 the government

[@1DaTJo]

@@anupdhar5514 who do you feel it is? I feel it’s wisdom speaking, telling us not to believe we are the body, we are the eternal soul.

[@ycc333]

We are calves. We are being laughed at. We complain about unhappiness, suffering ... borne with unfairness, tragic fate. We don't treasure the freedom to set our mind free, like the birds have wings to fly. It's true. It's most true regarding wars. People supposed to be free as swallows winging swiftly through the sky. There are countries and leaders do not treasure freedom. Therefore, people became calves with mournful eyes. Never knowing the reason why is because we have never learnt from the past cruel wars in the world.

[@henryfong2322]

Appreciate your thoughts

[@netanelwarren6334]

The reason the calf is on his way to slaughter is because his master decided it. The master is bringing his cow to slaughter and blaming the cow! Does the cow stand a chance against his human master? Is he supposed to break free of his Iron shackles and go live freely? What are the chances of that do you think. The reason the calf is a calf IS because of his master. He would be free without his master. To rationalize the slaughter of his calf by saying the calf should've been a swallow is literally CUCKOO. If caging a swallow was profitable enough for this man he would do it and blame the swallow! So too, with humans and out masters....

[@dennysmith7862]

I had this song sung to me by a lovely man... Mark Ryan... Using my name in place of Donna... He and Junior (my friend's boyfriend at the time - went on to break her heart 😢) Joan Baez... Inimitable folk singer of note... "Oh what a time what a time it was A time of innocence A time of Confidences Long ago I had a photograph That's all that's left me..." (Simon & Garfunkle - Old Friends)

[@carlolebrilla1182]

i remembered my younger years when I heard this song. Love it!

[@whigparty6180]

Beautiful, and it tears at your ❤

[@parttimethinker7611]

Imagining a group of people are watching a train cart packed full of ... going to someplace really bad. The watchers might wonder how unlucky “those people” were.. Meanwhile the folks in the train cart might be thinking how unlucky for the on lookers, will they be haunted by what they had seen..., for the rest of their natural lives? This song awoke me to the fact that no one is lucky in both cases (both the free bird and the calf). What sadden me the most is that I only came about this view in recent years. That’s just how dangerous ignorance can be. Donna Donna is a Very powerful song to a rising conscience. Thank you JB.

[@diosantana2659]

No way in hell the people on a train bound for slaughter are feeling bad for the people witnessing.

[@semMHW]

Love this song 🖤.

[@zahidhassan7342]

Lullaby of an angel....

[@alicelortat-jacob405]

Trop beau 😍🥰

[@user-zg4ek4tc7e]

ホロコース時代的 イスラエルを 20世紀風景に歌われた 当時 小学生でこの曲ジョン バイズが好きでした 😊❤ 今でも 聞くと涙が～😢

[@user-oo6qr9fq7q]

love this song

[@NehaGupta-vt2pz]

I love this song

[@user-cb1lk2hy7j]

This is so relaxing!

[@nanakarnnajub9519]

I like this song!

[@ReisenderBecauseOfLuv]

Now I see the depth of this song Okay I learned it as s child in Germany, as a native english speaker, forgot my own words, music lesson teacher told me this song just by telling it without notes and text, just by ear.. I think he knew what I am This song was always in my head! Now it's the real truth. In a twisted world Puuuh...

[@donnamarinkovic4825]

Thank you for this song❤

[@IamCanadian49]

the song was originally sung in Yiddish. It was a warning to Jews that they could either be calves and get slaughtered or they could become swallows and live free and safe out of reach of the farmer.

[@jiraratfrack3068]

Love this song❤

[@IES2024]

U are a wonderful singer

[@diosantana2659]

Thanks, from Joan Baez

[@pradeepauddy736]

Good to listen

[@ahmetbahayetmez5314]

This song is my favorite and joan baez

[@adhitamudgal1240]

❤

[@AntoniettaCarozza-px8vi]

Great relembers... Elle

[@sarah-ephrayim-uo2wx]

What a meaningful song lyrics. I like this song that my Grandson and granddaughters know how to sing this song.

[@marpibam]

Love this❤️

[@Woo0712]

Don't know how many times you said my name but sounds great.❤

[@berndhofmann752]

What à beautiful Song and the music.❤❤❤❤❤

[@Nguyen_Gioi]

❤ Lovely

[@shauryamitra9933]

i love

[@havintas1791]

Love dona 🎉❤

[@vladimirandjelkov3188]

❤❤❤❤❤Pozdrav iz prelepe Vojvodine ❤❤❤❤

[@JbuhaKafka]

Nostalgia

[@Albert_Sierra]

Donna, Donna, Don ADDON ! 😆 I like this song

[@nurainiain7761]

Primary 4. 1990. In music class. Bedok North Primary School.

[@marvin465986]

Sept 13 2023 (10:47pm). I just recall this song..then search the lyrics...then I miss listening this song..every Sunday..

[@manfredhinnrichs3952]

#bestofthebest 👍🙏👍

[@shauryamitra9933]

Nice

[@HerlinaNingsih-vu7qq]

Very sad 😭😭❤

[@IES2024]

Good

[@baharabdullayeva8149]

This is my life.this story

[@saniaminkhatus9708]

Mantap

[@luruth48]

imagine a carriage full of people standing room only , trying to look through the cracks in the wood that made the carrages

[@shamolhuda8322]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@weeratepsaetan406]

😊

[@luciferfallenangel666]

I can hear the winds laughing 😶

[@user-iq8ir5cz7g]

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻😍😍😍😘😘😘❤️❤️❤️😭😭😭

[@user-fe9vh3fi9c]

I sang this in grade school

[@purnimaroy8764]

Goo

[@aparnakarmakar4929]

😢

[@nonton6924]

Like

[@donababu773]

Ente peru anghane famous ayi DONA 😌

[@lillianxaritakiasimou3822]

live

[@ileanashirley-smith1674]

Some people are born to be enslaved, don't know they could escape, some really cannot escape their underdog position in the world. but others are born with money and power behind and in front of them. They can be free if they choose. Still, they might spend their lives being enslaved to money making greediness and end up on the chopping board after all.

[@kelseymathias3881]

There's a message to us in 2022. Don't be a calf easily led to slaughter. Be a swallow. Be free. Don't listen to false prophets.

[@brucelevine6517]

this song was originally in the yiddish language oct 7th is the perfect example

[@tyxeri48]

I always thought it's about the holocaust.

[@esztermolnar6554]

As far as I know it was written earlier as a song in a musical. But it is about Jews, and its original language is Jiddish.

[@kajakjohlopi7843]

It's about sheeple vs free spirits isn't it?

[@nicetryb0z0]

Yes. Lot’s of people here reading it wrong, when there’s literally a line in the song “who told you a calf to be?” And the warning “but whoever treasures freedom has learned to fly”

[@tonniebaumeister]

The original is "Dos Kelbl". Beatifull Klezmer Music. This version is "polished". Dos Kelbl has rough versions. Is it typical Jewish to "accept their destiny / doom / fatal end? When you listen to the "Leitmotiv" of the calf. Do not complain....

[@bzzzttt]

2:12

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

天使流下淚

[@deekk3936]

My name is Donna 😜

[@kalpanachary44]

@ Dee KK haha 😂

[@gtk.sofia.]

Oh wow your officially famous

[@IES2024]

U

[@malasreview9206]

know from gie

[@yehshinchu]

originally it was concerning Holocaust

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

讓我坐在人類心上

[@user-xl4df9ys5u]

Am Ysrael chai!

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

眼淚寫的信讓上帝知道

[@ranitshilsharma9861]

What's the meaning of 'Donna' here..??

[@ayberkvarol429]

Its the name of the calf who is going to be slaughtered...

[@wee4babies626]

My understanding is that per the original Yiddish language "Dona" is not a name as used in this song, but it is a "filler" sound similar to how we would use "La, La". This is how it was explained to me.

[@alanbannruod538]

Donna is ADONAI

[@lilibombin6667]

Depressing lyrics . I thought there’d be some mention or point to the story about the calf getting an eventual reward for being so unlucky , but no

[@kelseymathias3881]

It's a cautionary tale .

[@lilibombin6667]

@@kelseymathias3881 the calf couldn’t help being born a calf instead of a free bird 😢 it accentuates how unfair life is

[@kelseymathias3881]

@@lilibombin6667 Birth may be destiny for calves, but doesn't have to be for humans. We can often rise above our beginnings and choose to not be a calf...but to soar instead.

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

蝴蝶花兒為我跳首舞

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

願人的真心善心愛心良心同理心惻隱之心將心比心能夠被眼淚和血液喚醒

[@bilaldaaibes8676]

Z

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

讓鐵石心腸開花

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

可以不被殘忍的剝皮

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

跳首紀念舞

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

才能開啟天堂之門

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

大雁大雁讓我擁有飛翔的翅膀

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

是不是唯有痛苦流的血

[@be.ttubee]

By witnessing Russian invasion on Ukraine I have began to understand what the phrase "Moscow does not believe in tears" means. Yeah, not just Moscow the whole world does not believe in tears. Get on with it!

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

人類是不是應該改變

[@rawreiki]

FREE PALESTINE

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

耶穌耶蘇你的寶血可不可救贖我

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

幸福微笑

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

讓石頭開花

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

親吻上帝

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

問問上帝

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

要我的皮也要讓我好死

[@user-fw2ik6ib8d]

送給因人類的貪婪殘忍利益被狠心殺害的可憐動物

[@user-oo6qr9fq7q]

love this song