No Woman No Cry

I belive that this song (No women no cry )been played by Boony Am team.I belive that the meaning of this song is (Requesting his women ,not to cry).(No ,Women Dont cry )

i dont know if this question is still wanted to be answered but i agree with mellee. bob marley had cancer that started in his foot , which eventually led to his death. he says in the song "my feet is my only carriage, so i've got to push on through. But while im gone..." so he's probably just telling his wife and/or other women to not cry over his death. and the rest of the song is just him recounting his good memories of the past before he dies. its very clear if you know about the cancerous foot part.

As a Jamaican and a former student of Linguistics, I can guarantee that his lyrics does not mean "if you do not have a woman, do not cry," and that this excerpt from the song over which we are debating is not a pidgin, a dialect, hackney or whatever else that was said here. Jamaican Creole is a language in development, and like English and other "bona fide" languages if given the opportunity to develop naturally, will become a full fledged language. As for the lyrics being debated, it translates in English as no woman should experience sorrow, pain. My personal interpretation of the song is that it was an ode to the strength and character of women. In my opinion, he might have written this song to his wife Rita because he knew that he would die soon and he wanted her to be strong and carry on. However as others have said, he might have been alludding to other issues on a wider spectrum

I agree with Mathew:
"he definetly means; woman, dont cry."

i think its all about what the song means to you. this is what it means to me. it could in fact be the political points stated, but its not what i think of when i hear it.
But it most definetly does NOT mean " if you dont have a woman you wont cry."

If the phrase meant "if you don't have a woman you won't cry", then the next line -- "No, little sister, don't shed no tears" -- would make no sense at all. "No, woman, don't cry" must be the correct interpretation.

Newfam, I haven't really scrutinized the lyrics enough to have a strong opinion, but it would seem that most here disagree with you and Mr. Gibson. In any case, you shouldn't be surprised at all that there are so many drastically different interpretations. It is the very nature, perhaps even the definition of poetry that it resonates with many people on many different levels, even beyond the intent and expectations of the poet.

I can't believe how many people have drastically different interpretations, and are so adamant that they are right. I believe that there is one meaning, and I would agree with Mr. Gibson. If you have no woman to love, you may have many things, but your heart is empty. There is a fullness in being a man, but without the love and emotion, even crying inherent in relation, what do you really have? Beautiful words that every man should be in contact with. Man's struggle. No woman, no cry.

Kerri-Anne....I think we all agree with you when you say he was a musical genius. He has touched so many of us with his music.

Then again, Bob Gibson also said "simplistic" when he obviously meant "simple".

Bob Gibson has a nice version of it for instance, but it has nothing at all to do with what Marley was saying, real Marley fans would know that.

It means No woman, DONT cry. Can read as shallow or deep into that as you want ( in terms of the political stuff)

Anyone who says its about a man not having a woman has TOTALLY missed the mark.

I feel the song is very simplistic its statement but very deep in meaning.
The phrase "no woman no cry'' means if you do not have a woman, life for a man has no responsibilities- NO CRY- he can be a player basically immature. However who wants to spend his life without a true mate and all the responsibility that comes with it- hence there will be some tears. How ever some of the tears will be tears and cries of joy.
Think about it -this is a very deep song

No,no,no. What are you all talking about. Any true Bob Marley fan would know that "No Woman,No Cry" is a reference to Englands prior control of Jamaica. "Woman" is a reference to the Queen of England. They used to protest in Trench Town all night long against England. A purely political song. Peter Tosh was also very influential in this fight.

i am a jamaican girl origionally from st. katherine jamaica, a peris near kingston and i just wanted to put that in jamaica, bob marley is a musical genius and his music is pure and wonderful. listen to his lyrics and i guarentee you will realize what he is talking about..1 luv as we say

that was lovely randy, you truly are a poet

"rastafari forever" is right in today's school of modern thought about reggae... sociopolitical currents are what made reggae the voice of the ghetto, and Bob Marley was singing for recently independent Jamaica, the symbol of woman refers to the Queen...move forward and dont dwell on the past colonial and white- man dominated times... fit it in with the African- Caribbean diasporic movement and there you have it, a synopsis on how reggae does much to promote an Afro- Caribbean agenda, rather than the now popular Afro- Hispanic agenda. Hope that helps in Japan!

Its amazing how this particular song is being debated about. This song has got nothing to do with a woman or crying, if you check out the legend album, there is songs that already songs to cover that topic. By 'woman' bob is talking about any any suffering community in third world countries all over the world. More specifically, I think Robert is referring to Africa, the motherland....Everything is realy gonna be alright!!!!!!!

Hello everyone!!

I just managed to read about it but I firmly believe that the song "no woman no cry" was sung for the commom people of Trench Town. He dedicated this song to them for the good times they spent despite the state of misery and to remind them how nice everything was, which has changed with the changing time.

The lyrics are extremely simple and quotes a lot about Bob Marley's observation of life in general. It is definitely Bob Marley's reminiscence of the life he led with the common people. But it is awesome if the lyrics are well understood.

Cheers!!

A more accurate rendering of the title in Jamaican patois would be "No, woman, nuh cry". Nuh, which makes a shorter vowel sound for no, is the equivalent of the contraction don't.

He definitely means woman, don't cry

When I see:

"no woman..." meaning "no, woman..." meaning you're saying no to a woman and actually calling her "woman" like some sort of title or nickname

and compare it to:

"no woman..." meaning "you don't have a woman..."

it reminds me of a comedy country song from long ago called "My Girl Bill". The entire song sounds like it's about a girl named Bill, but then at the very end, the last line is "...she's MY girl, BILL", and it's clear that the singer is telling this to his male friend, Bill, not singing ABOUT a girl named Bill. The entire song can be understood either way, which, I guess, is what makes it funny.

it makes more sense if you shake your head and look down while you say it

well a lot of people think it means if you have or if there were no women , you dont have to shed tears. but then why would the next sentence be , oh little sister , Dont shead no tear , thats gotto be about a woman, i going for no woman , dont cry :)

In Jamaica, some native speakers use the word "nuh" -some distortion of English - to replace the contraction "don't".

i once heard that the song, "No Woman No Cry" was dedicated to bob's wife. a friend told me that bob made this song because he wanted to tell his wife that he didn't have another woman, thus, it's like saying, "i don't have a woman, don't cry".
but then, this is only hearsay. and the others had already done their research at bobmarley.com, so, i think that's the one we should rely on.

Certainly that title means that without a woman there'll be no tears, if you read the lyrics from that song you'll find that it means what i've just said

Seems if one writes out the lyrics it becomes obvious.

I love this song :).

Georgie was a good friend of Marley's that was killed during the Kingston riots. He is singing to the man's wife or sister...

Alexa Kim... much love to ya, thanks for standing up to ignorant assholes.
JayRoc- your quote is wonderful and well thought out, as well as accurate.
And Princess... I appreciate all the accurate and informational pieces on your part as well...well done!
Rastafari forever- Thank you as well, your information was also very accurate!!

All these people know their Bob Marley music, or at least did some research. I am a Bob Marley fan, along with many other reggae artists for 15 years now, lived in the Carribean, and study the rastafarian culture. Bob Marley was not telling a woman not to cry, and he was DEFINITELY not saying that Women = pain and suffering and without them you will not cry...come on! As Rastafari forever said, believe what you want, I know what is true and this song is beautiful and full of meaning. It's political... and tells a story of Jamaica and the hardships the people suffered but they had to be strong. Do some research... you'll find out for yourself.

there are two meanings for this song theres the jamican 1 and the english 1

the jamican meaning :
"No Woman,No Cry" is a reference to Englands prior control of Jamaica. "Woman" is a reference to the Queen of England. They used to protest in Trench Town all night long against England. A purely political song.

the english version:
is taken from one of bobs friends that was dying in hospital the mans wife was cry by his bed side and the dying man held her face in her hand and said.."no woman!....no cry!.." bob was toucjed by this and wrote the song in memory of his friend.

make up your own mind which one who want to believe...i no which one i believe but either way its a beautiful song that holds alot of meaning for alot of people ....but it definatly aint about a man with no legs lol

rastafari forever,forever rasta!

the song is about a jamaican who has no legs and because of that he can't relate sexually with women. nevertheless he's a happy man. no woman....but he don't cries

yes it means, don't cry. Jah Bless!

g

ungrammatical :-(

just wanted to say that it's my favorite sing ever!

I think someone already said this, but it's a political and song of strength for his people, and in particular the women living in the impoverished conditions in the trench towns of Jamaica. To give them strength and to literally tell them not to cry. I've also heard that the "Woman" referred to in "No Woman, no cry" may also be a reference to the queen of England and a protest to Englands control of Jamaica.

What I know for sure is this is one of the greatest songs ever written.

Man! This song is like a hymn. I seems to communicate a deep spiritual message that however I'm feeling it seems to just make me think of God!

It's like the saying "Know Jesus, Know Peace, No Jesus, No peace"
"No woman, no cry" is saying that if you don't have a lover, you won't end up heartbroken and crying.

sad

yes the meaning of the song is, No Woman would cry.. its political so dont take the title literally

I do think that it means

"hey woman, please don't cry", something softer, a kind of advice.....

and i also think that Jamaican is a mix of languages so it's been very distorted, and that's why it's very difficult to understand the meaning of it.

I do think he's saying that woman are strong people, they tend to solve their problems more than just sitting and making them a burden.

i got a snake, man!!

"pidgin" refers to a mixing of languages. when a "pidgin" language has members that speak said language as their first lang. then it becomes a creol(sp? i'm terrible at spelling). yes, it is "Cockney," "hackney"is being used as a derogatory description of Jamacian english

what db girl said.

He's saying that if you don't have a woman, you shouldn't cry about it.