This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)
#1 | Back to Top01-23-2011 01:10:14 PM
- minervana
- High Tripper
- Registered: 10-10-2009
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Dona Dona
You may remember the song "Dona Dona" from the episode "Cowbell of Happiness." It turns out that there's more to that song than one would think. From wikipedia:
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, reflecting the situation of Jews during the Holocaust. 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 lyric sheet is in typewritten Yiddish.
I haven't seen the play, but I know that Esterke is a fabled mistress of Casimir the Great.
Here's a Yiddish-language version of the song.
Last edited by minervana (01-23-2011 01:10:36 PM)
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#2 | Back to Top01-23-2011 01:41:22 PM
- Trench Kamen
- Eternal Eschatologist
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#3 | Back to Top01-23-2011 03:57:43 PM
- Lightice
- Azure Paleontologist
- From: Finland
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Re: Dona Dona
For some reason SKU isn't even the only anime to have that song: it appears also at least in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex of all things. Except when it doesn't; when I first saw the series in fansub it had this very song. When I later bought the DVD it had it replaced with something similar. I have no idea why.
Hei! Aa-Shanta 'Nygh!
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#4 | Back to Top01-23-2011 08:27:31 PM
- Riri-kins
- World's End
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Re: Dona Dona
Wow, that's pretty eerie. I never expected anything in one of Nanami's episodes to be so serious.
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#5 | Back to Top01-23-2011 11:31:17 PM
- Dallbun
- Tour Guide to Crawling Chaos
- Registered: 10-19-2006
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Re: Dona Dona
Oh, did most people not know about Dona Dona's history? It's pretty famous, and has been covered a lot of times in English and other languages. Joan Baez's version is one of the more well known, I think, but you can find a whole bunch of others just with a cursory look on Youtube or such.
Lightice wrote:
For some reason SKU isn't even the only anime to have that song: it appears also at least in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex of all things. Except when it doesn't; when I first saw the series in fansub it had this very song. When I later bought the DVD it had it replaced with something similar. I have no idea why.
Wikipedia says that it was changed for the English release. Did they change it on the Japanese track, not just in the dub? That's unusual. The song matches the situation well, but perhaps they thought it was too dark humor or something.
Longer Translation Projects: Utena Sega Saturn Game, Utena Novel 2, Utena Novel 1, Movie Draft, Let's Plays
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#6 | Back to Top01-24-2011 12:04:43 PM
- Epi_lepsia
- Tragedian
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Re: Dona Dona
Dallbun wrote:
Oh, did most people not know about Dona Dona's history? It's pretty famous, and has been covered a lot of times in English and other languages. Joan Baez's version is one of the more well known, I think, but you can find a whole bunch of others just with a cursory look on Youtube or such.
Joan Baez's version is beautiful in so many ways. It's been my alarm clock song for 3 years in a row.
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#7 | Back to Top01-24-2011 06:07:39 PM
- Lightice
- Azure Paleontologist
- From: Finland
- Registered: 10-21-2006
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Re: Dona Dona
Dallbun wrote:
Wikipedia says that it was changed for the English release. Did they change it on the Japanese track, not just in the dub? That's unusual. The song matches the situation well, but perhaps they thought it was too dark humor or something.
At least in my Nordic release they did - sung in Japanese and all. I've been planning to buy the American version at some point since the Nordic version frankly sucks for various reasons, but it's not exactly on the top of my priorities.
Hei! Aa-Shanta 'Nygh!
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#8 | Back to Top01-24-2011 10:04:35 PM
- poetoffire
- Mikage Mistruster
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Re: Dona Dona
I sung it for the Holocaust memorial each year with my Temple choir when I was little. That song always makes me shiver. It really makes the episode that much more serious.
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#9 | Back to Top01-26-2011 06:28:14 PM
- Duelist Megu
- Ruthless Deflorist
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Re: Dona Dona
Did not know this. That's frightening in a kind of awesome way.
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#10 | Back to Top01-29-2011 09:03:34 AM
Re: Dona Dona
Oh, Ikuhara, you card.
"You know what would make this episode a total mindfuck? Make it seem like some whimsical filler, I'm thinking Nanami, big brother issues, cowbell, that sort of thing....and bam! slip in some Holocaust, right there."
....man, that's dark.
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#11 | Back to Top01-29-2011 07:23:20 PM
- minervana
- High Tripper
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Re: Dona Dona
Bluesky wrote:
Oh, Ikuhara, you card.
"You know what would make this episode a total mindfuck? Make it seem like some whimsical filler, I'm thinking Nanami, big brother issues, cowbell, that sort of thing....and bam! slip in some Holocaust, right there."
....man, that's dark.
Indeed.
According to this video, the song was once prohibited in South Korea as a communist song. I don't see any mention of that on wikipedia, though.
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#12 | Back to Top02-11-2011 06:40:23 PM
- delirious_decadence
- New Student
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Re: Dona Dona
I really loved that song (and that episode)... 
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