Invictus
William Ernest Henley
About The Author
William Ernest Henley was a British poet, writer, critic and editor in late Victorian England. Though he wrote several books of poetry, Henley is remembered most often for his 1875 poem "Invictus". A fixture in London literary circles, the one-legged Henley was also the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's character Long John Silver (Treasure Island, 1883), while his young daughter Margaret Henley inspired J. M. Barrie's choice of the name Wendy for the heroine of his play Peter Pan (1904).
About The Poem
"Invictus" is a short poem by the Victorian era British poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903). It was written in 1875 and published in 1888 in his first volume of poems, Book of Verses, in the section Life and Death (Echoes).
Invictus
by: William Ernest Henley
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.
हारना मना है
Transcreated by Vineet KKN ‘Panchhi’
ये जो दूर तक रात-सी छाई है ये जो दूर तक,
अँधेरा ही अँधेरा है अगर
आज भी कोई ख़ुदा है,
तो जान ले मेरी सोच,
मेरे ख़याल, मेरी रूह पर, हक़, सिर्फ़ मेरा है |
हालत ख़राब है, तंग हैं, मालूम है,
पर अब तक न हम छुपे हैं,
न हमें रोना आया है,
पहली मर्तबा नहीं है,
के हम पर ये हुआ हैसर पे चोट लगी है,
ख़राशें हैं, पर अब तक सर तना है,
नहीं झुकाया हैन हम छुपे हैं,
न हमें रोना आया है |
इस ख़ौफ़, इस डर, इस परेशानी में,मुम्किन है,
डर बरसों चलता जाए
पर बरसों वाला हर बरस ये समझ
ले हम वो नहीं हैं,
जिन्हें डर, डराए |
वक़्त, क्या सज़ा सुनाएगा हमें,
हम पर क्या इल्ज़ाम लगाए जाएँगे,
हम अपनी क़िस्मत ख़ुद बनाते आए हैं
हम अपनी क़िस्मत ख़ुद बनाएँगे |