Kafuka: Inaka isha (2007) - full transcript
Surreal events occur when a hapless country doctor visits an ill boy one cold night.
The true way is along a rope
that is not crossed high in the air,
but only just above the ground.
It seems intended more to cause stumbling
rather than to be walked upon.
A COUNTRY DOCTOR
I am in great difficulty.
An urgent journey was facing me.
In a village ten miles distant,
a seriously ill man was waiting for me.
Please lend us a horse!
Please lend us a horse!
Please!
Shall I hitch up?
One doesn't know the sorts of things
one has stored in one's own house.
Hey Brother! Hey Sister!
Help him.
You brute!
Do you want the whip?
I don't know where this man comes from.
He is a stranger.
But everyone else has refused to help,
and he's helping me
out of his own free will.
Climb in.
But I'll take the reins.
You don't know the way.
Of course.
I'm not going with you.
I'm staying with Rosa.
No!
You're coming with me.
Or else, no matter how urgent it is,
I'll give up the journey.
It's not my intention to give you
the girl as the price of the trip.
Giddy up!
Doctor, let me die.
Yes...
In such cases the gods do help.
They send the missing horse,
even add a second one because it's urgent,
and even throw in a groom as a bonus.
I'll go back right away.
Just as I thought.
This young man is healthy.
He's saturated with coffee
by his caring mother,
so his circulation's a little off,
but he's healthy and
best pushed out of bed with a shove.
I'm no improver of the world,
so I'll let him lie here.
I am employed by the district
and do my duty to the full,
right to the point
where it's almost too much.
Badly paid,
but I'm generous and
ready to help the poor.
The young man may have his way.
I want to die too.
What am I doing here
in this endless winter?
I have to drag my team out of the pig sty.
If they hadn't happened to be horses,
I'd have had to travel with pigs.
That's the way it is.
The family knows nothing about this.
If they did know,
they wouldn't believe it.
It's easy to write prescriptions,
but difficult to come to
an understanding with people.
Now, at this point my visit
might have come to an end.
They have once more
called for my help unnecessarily.
But I'm used to that.
With the help of my night bell
the entire region torments me.
I fear they all want to torture me.
I must somehow, in my own head,
subtly rationalize
this away for the moment,
in order not to let loose at this family.
What hateful people.
What more do they expect?
I am somehow ready to concede
that the young man is perhaps truly sick.
Ah, now both horses are whinnying.
The noise is probably supposed to
come from higher regions,
in order to illuminate my examination.
Yes indeed, the young man is ill.
Poor young man, there's no helping you.
I have found out your great wound.
You are dying from
this flower on your side.
Will you save me?
If they use me for sacred purposes,
I let that happen to me as well.
What more do I want,
robbed of my servant girl,
an old country doctor.
Take his clothes off,
Then he'll heal,
And if he doesn't cure,
Then kill him.
It's only a doctor.
It's only a doctor.
It's only a doctor.
You know,
my confidence in you is very small.
You were shaken out from somewhere.
You don't come on your own feet.
Instead of helping,
you give me less room on my deathbed.
The best thing would be
if I scratch your eyes out.
Right, it's a disgrace.
But now I'm a doctor.
What am I supposed to do?
Believe me,
things are not easy for me either.
Should I be satisfied with this excuse?
Alas, I'll probably have to be.
I came into the world
with a beautiful wound.
That was all I was furnished with.
Young friend,
your mistake is that
you have no perspective.
I've already been in
all the sick rooms, far and wide,
and I can assure you,
your wound is not so bad.
Made in a tight corner
with two blows from an axe.
Many people offer their side,
and hardly hear the axe in the forest,
to say nothing of the fact
that it's coming closer to them.
Is that really so?
Or are you deceiving me in my fever?
It is truly so.
Take the word of honour...
of a medical doctor.
Now it was time
to think about my escape.
Giddy up!
Enjoy yourselves, you patients.
The inaccurate singing of the children
Enjoy yourselves, you patients.
The inaccurate singing of the children
The doctor's laid in bed with you.
The doctor's laid in bed with you.
resounded behind us.
The doctor's laid in bed with you.
The doctor's laid in bed with you.
I'll never come home at this rate.
Betrayed! Betrayed!
Once one responds
to a false alarm on the night bell,
there's no making it good again.
that is not crossed high in the air,
but only just above the ground.
It seems intended more to cause stumbling
rather than to be walked upon.
A COUNTRY DOCTOR
I am in great difficulty.
An urgent journey was facing me.
In a village ten miles distant,
a seriously ill man was waiting for me.
Please lend us a horse!
Please lend us a horse!
Please!
Shall I hitch up?
One doesn't know the sorts of things
one has stored in one's own house.
Hey Brother! Hey Sister!
Help him.
You brute!
Do you want the whip?
I don't know where this man comes from.
He is a stranger.
But everyone else has refused to help,
and he's helping me
out of his own free will.
Climb in.
But I'll take the reins.
You don't know the way.
Of course.
I'm not going with you.
I'm staying with Rosa.
No!
You're coming with me.
Or else, no matter how urgent it is,
I'll give up the journey.
It's not my intention to give you
the girl as the price of the trip.
Giddy up!
Doctor, let me die.
Yes...
In such cases the gods do help.
They send the missing horse,
even add a second one because it's urgent,
and even throw in a groom as a bonus.
I'll go back right away.
Just as I thought.
This young man is healthy.
He's saturated with coffee
by his caring mother,
so his circulation's a little off,
but he's healthy and
best pushed out of bed with a shove.
I'm no improver of the world,
so I'll let him lie here.
I am employed by the district
and do my duty to the full,
right to the point
where it's almost too much.
Badly paid,
but I'm generous and
ready to help the poor.
The young man may have his way.
I want to die too.
What am I doing here
in this endless winter?
I have to drag my team out of the pig sty.
If they hadn't happened to be horses,
I'd have had to travel with pigs.
That's the way it is.
The family knows nothing about this.
If they did know,
they wouldn't believe it.
It's easy to write prescriptions,
but difficult to come to
an understanding with people.
Now, at this point my visit
might have come to an end.
They have once more
called for my help unnecessarily.
But I'm used to that.
With the help of my night bell
the entire region torments me.
I fear they all want to torture me.
I must somehow, in my own head,
subtly rationalize
this away for the moment,
in order not to let loose at this family.
What hateful people.
What more do they expect?
I am somehow ready to concede
that the young man is perhaps truly sick.
Ah, now both horses are whinnying.
The noise is probably supposed to
come from higher regions,
in order to illuminate my examination.
Yes indeed, the young man is ill.
Poor young man, there's no helping you.
I have found out your great wound.
You are dying from
this flower on your side.
Will you save me?
If they use me for sacred purposes,
I let that happen to me as well.
What more do I want,
robbed of my servant girl,
an old country doctor.
Take his clothes off,
Then he'll heal,
And if he doesn't cure,
Then kill him.
It's only a doctor.
It's only a doctor.
It's only a doctor.
You know,
my confidence in you is very small.
You were shaken out from somewhere.
You don't come on your own feet.
Instead of helping,
you give me less room on my deathbed.
The best thing would be
if I scratch your eyes out.
Right, it's a disgrace.
But now I'm a doctor.
What am I supposed to do?
Believe me,
things are not easy for me either.
Should I be satisfied with this excuse?
Alas, I'll probably have to be.
I came into the world
with a beautiful wound.
That was all I was furnished with.
Young friend,
your mistake is that
you have no perspective.
I've already been in
all the sick rooms, far and wide,
and I can assure you,
your wound is not so bad.
Made in a tight corner
with two blows from an axe.
Many people offer their side,
and hardly hear the axe in the forest,
to say nothing of the fact
that it's coming closer to them.
Is that really so?
Or are you deceiving me in my fever?
It is truly so.
Take the word of honour...
of a medical doctor.
Now it was time
to think about my escape.
Giddy up!
Enjoy yourselves, you patients.
The inaccurate singing of the children
Enjoy yourselves, you patients.
The inaccurate singing of the children
The doctor's laid in bed with you.
The doctor's laid in bed with you.
resounded behind us.
The doctor's laid in bed with you.
The doctor's laid in bed with you.
I'll never come home at this rate.
Betrayed! Betrayed!
Once one responds
to a false alarm on the night bell,
there's no making it good again.