Dona Dona (Firefly Version)
Channel: LisaTheGreat42
Date: 2014-03-07

The American folk tune is one of the most beautiful songs I know. Originally written in Yiddish and translated into English, the original tells the story of a calf on a wagon going to market, an irritable farmer, and a swallow high in the sky. This is a retelling for the universe of Joss Whedon's Firefly.

I know you can hardly hear the guitar; it's been a while since I posted anything, so I forgot you have to play with a pick for the microphone to hear it. Ah well. Perhaps I'll re-record it sometime.

Lyrics and Chords:
Alternate lyrics by Lisa B. Henderson

 Am    E             Am           E
On a slave ship bound for market
 Am         Dm              Am          E
There's a boy with a mournful eye.
Am    E             Am        E
Far away there shines a star
Am   Dm     Am E  Am - G
As it dances through the sky.

[CHORUS]:
  G                            C
How the stars are laughing
  G                       C
They laugh with all their might
  G                                C             Am
Laugh and laugh the whole day through
   E                                Am
And half the summer's night, singing dona,
   E                         Am   
Dona, dona, dona, dona, 
  G                 C      E
Dona, dona, dona, do,
                     Am 
Dona, dona, dona, 
    Dm E                Am
Dona, dona, dona, dona, do.

"Stop complaining," says the jailer,
"Who told you a slave to be?
Why don't you have wings to fly with
Through the stars that shine so free(ly)?

Now the boy is softly crying
"Tell me stars, why do you laugh?
Tell me why I was born,
Not in flight but beneath the lash?"

Slaves are easily bought and bartered,
There will always be those who buy.
If you truly treasure freedom,
Like the stars you must learn to fly.