Maria Callas - by Helena Lanova

She was born on 2^nd December 1923 in New York and her parents were Greek.

   She is considered to be the best opera singer of the 20^th century.

   She sang a lot of different operas.

   She started playing the piano at the age of 5 and singing at the age of 8.

  When Maria Callas was 14 years old she and her mother went back to Greece because they had a lot of money problems.
   In 1942 at the Athens Opera she started singing the Tosca(Puccini) for the first time.

   Her first husband was Tullio  Seraphin and he helped her with her work.

  She stopped singing at the age of 40.

  She died on 16^th September in 1977 in Paris.

Leonel Messi - by João Luís

Source

Leonel Messi was born on 24^th of June 1987 (Argentina).

He started playing football very young and became very famous.

He plays football in La Liga for FC Barcelona and also plays for the Argentina National Team.

He became the best football player in the world.

Source:

Wikipedia

By Lara Pacheco

Friendly

Rare

Imaginative

Exceptional

Nice

Dear

Nelson Mandela - by Matilde Rocha

Source

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Mvezo, Eastern Cape, South Africa, on 18^th July, 1918.

Nelson Mandela was a lawyer and a president who fought against racism.

Mandela served 27 years in prison for being against the apartheid regime. He was released on 11^th February 1990.

As president, Nelson Mandela built a multi-racial democracy.

In South Africa, Mandela is often known as Madiba, his Xhosa clan name; or as tata (Xhosa: father).

            Mandela has received more than 250 awards over four decades, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.

            I admire Nelson Mandela because he fought for what he believed in, never using violence to achieve his goals and never giving up!

Watch this video on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FozhZHuAcCs

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela

 

Invictus

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.

                               William E Henley

Invictus

Autor: William E Henley

Tradutor: André C S Masini

Do fundo desta noite que persiste
A me envolver em breu - eterno e espesso,
A qualquer deus - se algum acaso existe,
Por mi’alma insubjugável agradeço.

Nas garras do destino e seus estragos,
Sob os golpes que o acaso atira e acerta,
Nunca me lamentei - e ainda trago
Minha cabeça - embora em sangue - ereta.

Além deste oceano de lamúria,
Somente o Horror das trevas se divisa;
Porém o tempo, a consumir-se em fúria,
Não me amedronta, nem me martiriza.

Por ser estreita a senda - eu não declino,
Nem por pesada a mão que o mundo espalma;
Eu sou dono e senhor de meu destino;
Eu sou o comandante de minha alma.

Copyright © André C S Masini, 2000
Todos os direitos reservados. Tradução publicada originalmente
no livro "Pequena Coletânea de Poesias de Língua Inglesa"