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Motto:
''The Romanian was born a poet''
Vasile Alecsandri
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Very lucky Mother Ghita was.
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Her neighbor across the way
was as talkative as she.
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After her neighbor passed away,
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strange things began to happen
in the house of Mother Ghita.
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From the elders
Mother Ghita knew
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that malicious spirits nestle
in abandoned houses.
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Ever since her neighbor died,
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a fear began to haunt her
that a hideous entity had moved in.
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What didn,t Mother Ghita
do to shoo away these spirits ?
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She did everything, from old women's
incantations to exorcism.
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Unhappily, though,
with no results.
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The cursed spirits seemed to have
made themselves at home for good,
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giving her no peace
night or day.
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MOTHER GHITA
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a film by
Diana Deleanu
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director of photography
Ion Ciucu
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edited by
Cosmin Bunea
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producer
Iulian Margu
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Not all of Mother Ghita,s days
had been like this.
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For us to understand
let us begin at the beginning.
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Mother Ghita saw
a man flrst step on the moon,
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on the television
at the village Cultural Centre.
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She was so impressed
by what she had seen
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that immediately she uttered
the following verse.
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''Tell me moon, so far away,
Did you ever think that of all the stars''
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''You would ever be
the first to host a man ?''
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''I cannot tell if you are happy,
I cannot tell if you are frightened''
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''That on your foggy soil a living
man has stepped his foot.''
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''They did not come to master you,
They did not come to rob you.''
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''They came to see your fields, your birds,
your people, your tongue, your voice.''
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''To see the life your people live,
the books they learn,''
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''What they put on their tables,
what animals they breed.''
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At that moment,
by accident or by destiny,
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the Instructor of Culture for the village
so happened to be there.
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Man's flrst step on lunar soil thus coincided
with that of Mother Ghita on literary soil.
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Naturally, her oral poetry
was naive.
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But this was not important;
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after all,
no one is born educated.
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The important thing was
that Mother Ghita had potential.
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The whole world
listened to me,
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and now I am thinking that
I was chosen by Fate.
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Doina of Otasau
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It was a great discovery
and a resounding success
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for the Centre of Preservation
and Guidance of Folk Customs.
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The Centre excelled in Folk Dance,
Pottery and Weaving,
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but as for Peasant-Poets
they were in bad shape.
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This situation came under severe criticism
from the Central Cultural Commission.
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Once Mother Ghita was discovered,
this dark period in Valcea,s culture ended.
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Because she had no formal training,
those assigned to the destiny of culture
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placed her into
the Peasant-Poet category.
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''A mad yearning steals me in the night''
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''To cast the beans behind the gate.''
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''Three beans means great joy,
Means someone will come round,''
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''Means I should leave my door ajar.''
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''I wish I could trust those beans,
if only once.''
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It was indicative of what the socialist
ideology called ,,obscurantism,,
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that which what had not yet been purged
from the Romanian peasant,s life
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and thus manifested richly
in the works of Mother Ghita.
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That was because she was writing
only about her own day-to-day life.
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History must record that
her principal sources of inspiration
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were the moon, the sun,
the springs, the forest.
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As the critics would later note,
her poetry did not then betray
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a superior artistic conscience.
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Her new designation as Poet
began to force her hand.
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If until then she had
seen herself as a peasant,
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and a poet in her free time,
she now understood that
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the roles had reversed themselves.
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Before she wrote
for her own pleasure,
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but now she realized
that she needed to pursue
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writing with a sense of duty.
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She realized she had to change,
to abandon minor things
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and to focus on
the great socialist themes.
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It,s true that she was carefully
oriented by the instructors
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at the Centre for Guidance, Conservation
and Valoriflcation of Folk Creations.
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These people were very meticulous
and committed to their assignments.
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They must be credited because
they had to work hard to bring her
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to a high level
of revolutionary consciousness.
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Mother Ghita took part
in numerous short training courses,
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for such is necessary
for the revolutionary conscience
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to achieve a certain level.
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After that her poetry began
to sound different,
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it began to have a message,
a direction.
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We can say that the insigniflcant
period of her creation was gone.
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''My Homeland''
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''My homeland, ancestral land
It is here I was born Romanian.''
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''From your undessicated springs
I drink incessantly.''
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It was not long before the pundits
of Mother Ghita,s poetry appeared.
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Confronted with these uncommon works,
they did not hesitate to speak
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of a phenomenon,
of their rapture as before a miracle,
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to eulogize this living
embodiment of the Romanian folk spirit.
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They all concurred that Mother Ghita
was a flgurehead in the long-emerging
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evolution of folk creation
in its creative dynamic of new values.
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''The Voice of My Country Resounds
Happy New Year''
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''With Good Wishes, Dear and Valued Leader
The Best Son of Our People.''
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Mother Ghita,s artistic evolution
was incendiary.
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In accordance with tradition,
all Party or State delegations were welcomed
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at the county border
by Mother Ghita with bread and salt.
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Dressed in traditional folk costume
she would present any number of flery verses.
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I went to many places.
Everywhere I went from Valcea to Bucharest,
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everybody said, here is Gheorgita Maleanu,
she must stay with us, and speak.
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She became a symbol
of the Romanian Peasant
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toiling upon the land,
but also toiling with the pen.
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Everywhere Mother Ghita went,
success was guaranteed,
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no matter the event.'
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Woman,s Day, Republic Day,
Romanian Communist Party Day,
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Harvest Day and so on...
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Each moment
I was the center of attention.
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I was very important.
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No matter where I would go,
the people would welcome me with open arms,
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and I was in the seventh heaven.
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Tlme passed,
and Mother Ghita became an institution.
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She was a wife, a mother, a housekeeper,
a collectivist, a folk dancer, a weaver,
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a singer and, most of all,
a Peasant-Poet genius,
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as the comrades from
the Ministry of Culture used to say.
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Slowly, Mother Ghita became famous
beyond Valcea,s borders.
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From that moment on the institution
of Mother Ghita began receiving
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signiflcant support
from the authorities,
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particularly from the Choreography and
Costumes Section of the Centre of Guidance
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and Preservation of Folk Creations,
from the Themes and Literary Prosody Section
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of the Cultural and
Social Education Committee,
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and from the Propaganda section
of Valcea,s Communist Party Committee
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for public speeches and
interviews in mass-media.
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She was afforded the opportunity to meet
the most important people of the moment.
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I have never changed
my way of speaking on stage,
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but some people envied me.
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The State Secretary was walking past,
he stopped in front of me and shook my hand.
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He did this with me only.
Why is this ?
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Of all the people there
he stopped in front of me.
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I felt his sincere affection towards me.
I needed nothing else.
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It was only during the ceremony in which
the Propaganda Secretary declared
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her to be a national treasure
that she started believing
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in the value of her verses.
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She represented
Valcea county with great success
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in the great socialist festival
of work and creation
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known as
,,Romania, We Sing of Thee,,.
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Everywhere I went
I was awarded many prizes.
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The recognitions came in rapid succession;
her life changed from one day to the next.
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In Bucharest I went to
the Party newspaper building.
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I was greeted by
the important people there.
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Even before I got there,
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they had called me ''incredible.''
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She was now convinced
of her own genius
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and recognized by the offlcials from
the Offlces of Culture and Propaganda.
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Her poems were being published
in all the newspapers.
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She was invited more
and more to appear on television,
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to give radio interviews.
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We honor our peasants
with a ''Good Morning!''
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''For bringing wealth to hearts
And brightness to horizon.''
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''For throughout the land
It is through them that life is lived.''
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Her artistic career
continued to thrive.
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''Through them the worker is born
and nurtured.''
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''And the waters flow together.
And the stars appear.''
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''On the oceans of fields
The crops are winding''
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''For the harvest to unite
Like brothers again.''
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Among those people
I felt extremely happy.
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The supreme moment both
for Mother Ghita
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and for those from
the Culture and Propaganda offlces
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was when she appeared on stage
beside the General Secretary
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of the Romanian Communist Party,
Nicolae Ceausescu.
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It was a proud moment for
all those involved in Valcea's culture.
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I was invited to Bucharest
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and asked to come on the stage,
where I got to talk.
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Ceausescu was on stage,
next to his wife Elena.
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She wasn't worth much,
but Ceausescu was always
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with the people,
always among them.
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You could tell
this was his country.
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I saw him as the eminent man
of our country.
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This was my way
of seeing Ceausescu.
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Ceausescu was a man.
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I seem to remember that I once was taken
to Scornicesti, where he was born.
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If those malicious spirits had not
shown up around her house,
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Mother Ghita,s sunset years
would have been different.
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She had so many wonderful memories
to flll the rest of her days.
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Over time, unfortunately, these spirits
became more and more grotesque.
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It became more difflcult
to live with them.
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Her sense of peace
came from the past.
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It's Beautiful.
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My awards are staying
in my house.
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I wouldn't give up any
of them for nothin'.
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And I have plenty more
in a suitcase.
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I am living through my awards.
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The collapse of the political system
brutally ended Mother Ghita's career.
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At my age, at 86 years,
I don't feel regrets about anything.
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Why not say it ?
The world is much worse now.
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Nobody's worth much,
except for the village priest.
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The only thing lurking
in front of her gate,
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where journalists used to wait in line
for an interview, are the old malicious spirits.
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The famous actor Amza Pellea
came to see me.
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We had a huge banquet
in the courtyard.
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I had seventy people
sitting at my table.
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Seventy !
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And among them
were my enemies too.
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They were dying of envy.
But still they came.
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The former offlcials of Creative Arts,
Culture and Propaganda
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do not visit anymore.
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All those who once decreed her
a poet of genius now avoid her.
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In vain did she knock
upon their doors.
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They all abandoned her.
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Some of them were promoted
in government,
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others became diplomats
proudly representing the country abroad,
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and most of them
are wealthy businessmen.
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But Mother Ghita is unchanged.
A poet.
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''I am a peasant's son''
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''A peasant's son
of the new Romania.''
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Does our great national poet,
Eminescu, have poems like that ?
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And if he does, so what ?
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I surpass him with my poems,
my little nothings.
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''I am a peasant's son
of the new Romania.''
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''And I am proud of my name
Tied to this land.''
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Can Eminescu write poems
like mine ?
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No, he can't. Nobody can.
There's no one like me.
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''I am a peasant's son
of the new Romania.''
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''I am the naked sole that bathes
in dew drops.''
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''And I am the sturdy tree
unshaken by wind.''
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Where does Eminescu have
poems like that ? Where ?
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Where do the other poets
have poems like that ?
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There's no one like me.
They are nobody.
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Look at my awards.
I have many awards. They have none.
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She has never forgotten
that she was declared a national treasure,
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that her work
was deemed everlasting.
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She knows that sooner
or later her modest home
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will once again become
a place of pilgrimage
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for all those who love poetry.
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I am donating this house
to a museum
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for people
to come and visit it.
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In my notebooks they will find
all my dreams.
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You will come to visit it,
and the Americans too,
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because this house
is a historical monument.
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She may be old, but her strength is sufflcient
to flght the world if necessary.
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But not so the malicious spirits
that harass her incessantly.
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00:21:49,750 --> 00:21:53,100
''I am a peasant's son
of the new Romania.''
233
00:21:53,390 --> 00:21:56,460
''And I am proud of my name
tied to this land.''
234
00:21:56,590 --> 00:22:00,460
''I am the naked sole that bathes
in dew drops''
235
00:22:00,790 --> 00:22:03,740
''And I am the strong tree
unshaken by wind...''
236
00:22:03,790 --> 00:22:08,100
We are grateful
for the support of:
237
00:22:08,150 --> 00:22:13,380
Valcea's Cultural and
Social Education Committee
238
00:22:13,430 --> 00:22:18,550
Valcea's Centre of Preservation
and Guidance of Folk Creations
239
00:22:18,590 --> 00:22:23,740
Valcea's Party Committee
240
00:22:23,790 --> 00:22:29,020
National Council
for Social Education and Culture
241
00:22:29,110 --> 00:22:34,180
Folk Creation National Centre