Hillel the Elder

Dull upon the waters
pale with great sin,
the skull of Pharaoh
surfaces before Hillel,
who says:

'Because you drowned
others, they drowned you:
and ultimately those
who drowned you
will themselves be drowned.'

And so in peace, it drifts
away after a thousand
speechless years,
to finally settle
in its place,
in a mishna.