Inspirational Invictus

 William Ernest Henley, was a real life inspiration,
who reputedly inspired more than one not insignificant other ...

From the age of 12 Henley suffered from tuberculosis of the bone which resulted in the amputation of his left leg below the knee during either 1865 or 1868-69.According to Robert Louis Stevenson's letters, the idea for the character of Long John Silver was inspired by his real-life friend Henley. Stevenson's stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, described Henley as "..a great, glowing, massive-shouldered fellow with a big red beard and a crutch; jovial, astoundingly clever, and with a laugh that rolled like music; he had an unimaginable fire and vitality; he swept one off one's feet". 

And then ... if another man can spend 27 years in a prison cell, on an island, FORGIVE, and go on to lead his country with dignity, whether he in fact read 'Invictus' or not... Well - I think there's something in that for all of us (Chenille) don't you? ;-)

Original			Traduction littérale
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 unbow'd. 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.			Depuis l'obscurité qui m'envahit, Noire comme le royaume de l'enfer, Je remercie les dieux quels qu'ils soient Pour mon âme indomptable. Dans l'étreinte féroce des circonstances, Je n'ai ni bronché ni pleuré Sous les coups de l'adversité. Mon esprit est ensanglanté mais inflexible. Au-delà de ce monde de colère et de larmes, Ne se profile que l'horreur de la nuit. Et pourtant face à la grande menace Je me trouve et je reste sans peur. Peu importe combien le voyage sera dur, Et combien la liste des châtiments sera lourde, Je suis le maître de mon destin, Je suis le capitaine de mon âme.