Invictus

On this blog you fill find complementary materials for our course.

To start with, here you have an inspiring poem: the one Nelson Mandela used to read in his darkest hours in Robben Island, where he was imprisoned for many years. It's a Victorian poem. I hope it will inspire you to greatness. Yes, we can! We shall overcome!







I Am The Captain Of My Soul


Out of the night that covers me
black as the pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be
for my unconquerable soul

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
my head is bloody, but unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
looms but the horror of the shade
and yet the menace of the years
finds, and shall find me, unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate
how charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul


"Invictus,"
by William Earnest Henley



Bajo la noche que me cubre
negra como el fondo del pozo,
agradezco no sé a qué dioses
por mi ánima inconquistable

En las garras circunstanciales
no he gemido o clamado en alto;
bajo los golpes del azar
sangra mi frente: no se inclina

Este lugar de iracundia y hiel
cueva es de horrores y de sombras,
mas la amenaza de los años
me halla y me hallará sin miedo

No importa la estrechez del paso,
cuánto castigue la sentencia,
soy el dueño de mi destino,
soy el capitán de mi alma.