-
[cheers]
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Thank you.
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[cheers]
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Thank you.
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[cheers]
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Thank you so much.
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[cheers]
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Thank you.
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[cheers]
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To Graça Machel and the Mandela family;
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To President Zuma and members of the government;
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to heads of states and goverments
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-- past and present --
-
distinguished guests.
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It is a singular honor to be with you today
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to celebrate a life like no other
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To the people of South Africa
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[cheers]
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People of every race and every walk of life
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the world thanks you
for sharing Nelson Mandela with us
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His struggle was your struggle
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his triumph was your triumph,
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your dignity and your hope
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found expression in his life and your freedom
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Your democracy
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it's his cherished legacy
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It is hard to eulogize any man
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to capture in words
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not just the facts and the dates that make a life
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but the essential truth of a person
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the private joys and sorrows
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the quiet moments and uniue qualities
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that illuminate someone's soul
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How much harder to do so for a giant of history
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who moved a nation towards justice
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and in the process moved billions around the world
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Born during the World War I
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fired from court orders of power
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a boy raised herding cattle
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and tutored by the elders of his Mambu tribe
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Madiba would emerge
as the last great liberator of the 20th century.
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Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistence movement
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a movement
that at the start had little prospect for success
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Like Dr. King, he would give potent voice
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to the claims of the oppressed
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and the moral necessity of racial justice
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He would endure a brutal imprisonment
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that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev
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and reached the final days of the Cold War
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Emerging from prison without the force of arms
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he would -- like Abraham Lincoln --
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hold his country together
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when it threaten to break apart
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and like America's founding fathers he would erect
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a constitutional order
to preserve freedom for future generations
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A commitment to democracy and rule of law
-
ratified not only by his election
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but by his willingness to step down from power
after only one term
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Given the sweep of his life
-
the scope of his accomplishments
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the adoration that he so rightly earned
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it's tempting -- I think --
to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon
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smilling and serene
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detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men
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but Madiba himself strongly resisted
-
such a lifeless portrait
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[cheers]
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Instead,
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Madiba insisted on sharing with us
his doubts and his fears
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his miscalculations along with his victories
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"I am not a saint", he said
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"unless you think of a saint
as a sinner who keeps on trying."
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It was precisely
because he could admit to imperfection
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because he could be so full of good humour
-
even mischief,
despite the heavy burdens that he carried
-
that we loved him so.
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He was not a bust made of marble,
he was a man of flesh and blood
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a son and a husband
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a father and a friend
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and that's why we learned so much from him
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and that's why we can learn from him still
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For nothing he achieved was inevitable
-
in the arch of his life we see a man
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who earned his place in history through struggle
-
and shrewdness and persistance and faith
-
he tells us what is possible
-
not just in the pages of history books
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but in our own lives as well.
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Mandela showed us the power of action
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of taking risks on behalf of our ideas
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Perhaps Mandela was right
that he "inherited a proud rebelliousness
-
a stubborn sense of fairness" from his father
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and we know he shared
with millions of black and coloured Southafricans
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"the anger born of a thousand slights
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a thousand indignities
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a thousand unremembered moments
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a desire to fight the system that imprisoned
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my people", he said
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But like other early giants of the ANC
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the Zulus and the Tambos,
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[cheers]
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Madiba disciplined his anger
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and channelled his desire to fight into organization
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and platforms and strategies for action
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so men and women could stand up
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for the God given dignity
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Moreover, he accepted the consequences
of his actions
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knowing that standing up
to powerful interests and injustice carries a price
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"I've fought against white domination
I've fought against black domination."
-
[cheers]
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"I've cherished the ideal of a democratic
and free society
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in which all persons live together in harmony
and equal opportunities
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it is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve
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but if needs be it's an ideal
for which I am prepared to die."
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[cheers]
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Mandela taught us the power of action
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but he also taught us the power of ideas
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the importance of reason and arguments
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the need to study not only those who you agree with
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but also those you don't agree with.
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He understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison walls
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or extinguished by a sniper's bullet
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He turned his trial into an indictment of apartheid
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because of his eloquence and his passion
-
but also because of his training as an advocate
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He used decades of prison to sharpen his arguments
-
but also to spread his thirst for knowledge
to others in the movement
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and he learned the language
and the customs of his oppresors
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so that one day he might better convey to them
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how their own freedom depend upon his.
-
[cheers]
-
Mandela has demonstrated
that action and ideas are not enough
-
no matter how right
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they must also be ciselled in the laws and institutions
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He was practical, testing his beliefs
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against the hard surface of circumstance and history
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On core principles he was unyielding
-
which is why he could rebuff offers
of unconditional release
-
reminding the aparthaid regime
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that "prisoners cannot enter into contracts."
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But as he showed in painstaking negotiations
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to transfer power and draft new laws
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He was not afraid to compromise for the sake of a larger goal
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And because he was not only a leader of a movement
but a skilful politician
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the constitution that emerged was worthy
of this multi-racial democracy
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true to his vision of laws to protect minority
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as well as majority rights
and the precious freedom of every Southafrican
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And finally Mandela uderstood
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the ties that bind the human spirit.
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There is a word in Southafrican
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Ubuntu
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[cheers]
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A word that captures Mandela's greatest gift:
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his recognition that we are all bound together in ways
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that are invisible to the eye
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that there is a oneness to humanity
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that we achieve ourselves
by sharing ourselves with others
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and caring for those around us
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We can never know
how much of this sense was innate in him
-
or how much was shaped in a dark and solitary cell.
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But we remember the gestures -- large and small --
-
introducing his jailers as honored guests
at an inauguration;
-
taking a pitch in a springbok uniform;
-
turning his family's heartbreak into a call
to confront HIV-AIDS
-
that reveal the depths of his empathy
and his understanding
-
He not only embodied ubuntu he taught millions
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to find that truth within themselves.
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It took a man like Madiba to free
-
not just the prisoner but the jailer as well
-
[cheers]
-
to show that you must trust
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others so that they may trust you
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to teach that reconciliation is not a matter
of ignoring a cruel past
-
but a means of confronting it
with inclusion and generosity and truth
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He changed laws
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but he also changed hearts
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For the people of South Africa
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for those he inspired around the globe
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Madiba's passing is rightly a time of mourning
-
and a time to celebrate a heroic life
-
But I believe it should also prompt in each of us
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a time for self-reflection with honesty
-
regardless of our station or circumstance
-
we must ask: "How well have I applied
-
his lessons in my own life?"
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It's a question I ask myself
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as a man and as a president
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We know that white South Africa
-
the United States had overcome
centuries of racial subjugation
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As was true here, it took sacrifice
-
the sacrifices of countless people
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-- known and unknown --
-
to see the dawn of a new day
-
Michelle and I are beneficiaries of that struggle
-
[cheers]
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But in America and in South Africa
and in countries all around the globe
-
we cannot allow our progress to cloud the fact
-
that our work is not yet done
-
The struggles that follow
the victory of formal equality
-
or universal franchise
may not be as filled with drama and moral clarity
-
as those that came before
-
but they are not less important
-
For around the world today
-
we still see children
suffering from hunger and disease
-
we still see run down schools
-
we still see young people
without prospects for the future.
-
Around the world today
-
men and women are still imprisoned
for their political beliefs
-
and are still persecuted for what they look like
-
and how they worship, and who they love
-
and that is happening today
-
[cheers]
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And so we, too, must act on behalf of justice
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We, too, must act on behalf of peace
-
There are too many people who happily embrace
-
Madiba's legacy of racial reconciliation
-
but passionately resist even modest reforms.
-
that would challange chronic property
and growing inequality
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There are too many leaders who claim solidarity
-
with Madiba's struggle for freedom
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but do not tolerate the same for their own people
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[cheers]
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And there are too many of us
-
too many of us on the side lines
-
comfortable in complacency or cynicism
-
when our voices must be heard
-
The questions we face today
-
how to promote equality and justice;
-
how to uphold freedom and human rights;
-
how to end a conflict and sectarian war
-
these things do not have easy answers
-
But there were no easy answers
-
in front of that child born in World War I
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Nelson Mandela reminds us that
-
it always seems impossible until it is done
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South Africa shows that it is true
-
South Africa shows we can change
-
that we can choose a world
defined not by our differences
-
but by our common hopes
-
we can choose a world defined not by conflict
-
but by peace and justice and opportunity
-
[cheers]
-
We will never see
-
the likes of Nelson Mandela again
-
But let me say that the young people of Africa
-
and the young people around the world
-
you, too, can make his life's work your own
-
Over thirty years ago, while still a student
-
I learned of Nelson Mandela
-
and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land
-
and it stirred something in me
-
it woke me up to my responsibilities
-
-- to others and to myself --
-
and set me on an improbable journey
-
that finds me here today
-
and while I will always fall short of Madiba's example
-
he makes me want to be a better man
-
[cheers]
-
He speaks
-
to what is best inside us
-
After this great liberator is laid to rest
-
and when we return to our cities and villages
-
and rejoined our daily routines
-
let us search for his strength
-
let us search for his largeness of spirit
-
somewhere inside of ourselves
-
and when the night grows dark
-
when injustice weights heavy on our hearts
-
when our best laid plans seem beyond our reach
-
let us think of Madiba
-
and the words that brought him comfort
-
within the 4 walls of his cell:
-
"It matters not how streight the gate,
-
how charged the punishment the scroll
-
I am the master of my fate,
-
I am the captain of my soul."
-
What a magnificent soul it was
-
We will miss him deeply
-
May God bless the memory of Nelson Mandela.
-
May God bless the people of South Africa
-
[cheers]
Dariusz Majchrowski
There are a lot of mistakes and ommisions in the original transcrip, for example:
"during world war one fired from court orders of power" :-)
should be:
"Born during World War I, far from the corridors of power"
I hope it hasn't been translated to other languages from this version of original transcript.
Please, take a look at this transcript:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/10/politics/mandela-obama-remarks/
The speech can't be translated to other languages, unless it is revised and corrected.
Regards,
Darek