The Eloquent Peasant - Shadi Abdel Salam الفلاح الفصيح - شادي عبد السلام

THE ELOQUENT PEASANT - (restored copy)
From the ancient Egyptian Pharaonic Literature - Middle Kingdom 2200 BC
Director and Script: Shadi Abdel Salam - 1970

subtitle source: http://subscene.com/subtitles/the-eloquent-peasant/english/573572

(شكاوى الفلاح الفصيح - (نسخة بعد الترميم
من الأدب المصرى الفرعوني للدولة الوسطى سنة ٢٢٠٠ قبل الميلاد
سيناريو و إخراج: شادي عبد السلام

Hey!
Hey!

Wait!
Wait!

I have not mistaken the road.
It is a road for all the people.

I know the owner of this estate.

It is the property of the great
governor Renzi son of Mero.

He is the one who purified the land
from all the thieves.

Do I get stolen in his protection?

O great governor!

O greatest of the great!

What Thut Nakht has taken are
only taxes that are lawfully owed to him.

Would Thut Nakht be punishable
for a handful of grain and salt?

Order him to return them, and he will.

O ruler of all that perished
and all that has not,

if you sail into the sea of justice,
wind would not break your sail,

and your boat would not be stalled,
and your port would not be wrecked,
nor would the stream send you far,

and you shall not see a startled face,

for you are a father for the orphan,
and a husband for the widow,

and a brother for the outcast, and a
caretaker for those who have no mother.

Let me raise your name in this land,
above every law that is just.

O ruler, you who transcend greed
and is empty of fear.

O who destroys tyranny
and establishes justice.

Respond to my shout when my mouth utters,
and listen to me when I speak.

Establish justice.

You who are worthy of praise,
and is praised only by praised ones,

save me from my misery.

Look at me... I am burdened with worries.

Do me justice... for I am lost.

Keep the peasant, without answering his
query, until he utters all that he has.

He is truly an eloquent man.

Record everything he utters with precision.

Thus orders the Pharaoh.

And in the meantime,
provide him with food and aid,

and let a servant be sent to his village
to see if his family was suffering from
need during that period.

Enter to present your speech to the Pharaoh.

Deity of the two sides,

the great God,

Son of the Sun,

Ruler of the crowns,

the immortalized Immortal.

O great governor,

you are Ra, lord of the heavens
in the company of your followers.

All aid to man is from you,

for you are like the overwhelming flood,

you are the Nile that makes the fields green,

and fertiles the arid lands.

Abolish the thief.

Protect the miserable.

Dont be like the flood that sweeps
those who complain.

Beware, for the afterlife approaches.

Do like the proverb that says:

To establish justice is to breathe.

Could the balance flaw?

Could its arms lean to one side?

Do not deceive for you are responsible.

Do not underestimate for you are balanced.

Do not deceive for you are the balance.

Do not deviate for you are righteousness.

Look, for you are the guardian of the balances.

If they deviated, then you have deviated.

Your tongue is the lever of the balance,

and your heart, its load;
and your lips, its arms.

You have been appointed to listen to complaints,

and to judge between rivals,

and to hold back the robber;

but you are leaning to his side.

The people love you,
but you are an aggressor!

You have been erected
to be a dam for the poor,

that saves them from drowning.

But look, you yourself have become the flood!

Establish justice. Spread virtue.
Destroy every evil.

Be like the coming wealth
that would end the famine,

like the garment that would end nakedness,

like the calm sky after a rampant storm,

giving warmth to those
who suffer from the cold.

Be like the fire that cooks the raw [meat],

and like the water that sends away thirst.

You have been endowed with knowledge,
and acquired wisdom,

not to rob the people.

You have become used to
the behavior of humans.

Then you are liable to error.

Have the honorable of the son of man,
become the leader of aggressors on earth?

He who sows evil,
waters his field with injustice.

O you who orders it [the sun],
that it responds to your will and sails.

My throat is tightening with whats in it,

and my heart is heavy.

There is a crack in the dam,

and the water is flooding through it.

Thus I open my mouth to speak.

There is no silent one
that you have not given speech,

and there is no sleeping one
that you have not awakened,

and there is no ignorant one
that you have not made wise.

Those who have been appointed
to prevent evil,

have become a haven for the abusers.

Establish justice,

for the God whose justice has
become the law for justice.

For justice is eternal,

and it descends with its owner to the grave,

when he is wrapped in his shroud
and planted in the soil,

so his name would not be erased from the earth,

but remembered;
for he has established justice.

Thus is the law of the God.

You have not rewarded me for this good word,

that came out from the mouth of Ra Himself.

Say the truth.

Do the truth,

for it is great,

for it is what remains,

and you shall be rewarded, and it shall
follow you through your long-lived life.

But for those who look away from deception,

they shall have no children [bloodline],
nor heirs on the earth.

He who sails while carrying deceit,

his ship shall not reach its port.

There is no yesterday
for he who doesnt care,

and there is no friend, for he whose
ears have stopped listening to justice,

and there is no pleasurable day
for greed.

I complain to you, but you
dont listen to my complaint.

I will go and carry my complaint of you
to Anubis, God of the necropolis.

Establish justice for the God,

whose justice has become the law for justice.

For justice is eternal,

and it descends with its owner to the grave,"

"when he is wrapped in his shroud
and planted in the soil,

so his name would not be erased from the earth;

but remembered,
for he has established justice.

Say the truth.

Do the truth,

for it is great,

for it is what remains,

and you shall be rewarded,

and it shall follow you
through your long-lived life.