如果

IF

Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,

If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And--which is more--you'll be a Man,my son!

如果在眾人六神無主之時，你鎮定自若而不是人云亦云;

如果被眾人猜忌懷疑時，你能自信如常而不去枉加辯論;

如果你有夢想，又能不迷失自我;

如果你有神思，又不至於走火入魔；

如果在成功之中能不忘形於色，而在災難之後也勇於咀嚼苦果；

如果聽到自己說出的奧妙，被無賴歪曲成面目全非的魔術而不生怨艾；

如果看到自己追求的美好受天災破滅為一堆零碎的瓦礫，也不肯放棄；

如果你辛苦勞作，已功成名就，為了新的目標，你依舊冒險一搏，哪怕功名成烏有；

如果你跟村夫交談而不變謙恭之態，和王侯散步而不露諂媚之顏；

如果他人的愛憎左右不了你；如果你和任何人為伍都能卓然獨立；

如果昏惑的騷擾動搖不了你的意志，你能等自己平心靜氣再做答時……

那麼，你的修養就會如天地般博大，而你，就是個真正的男子漢了，我的兒子！

拉迪亞德·吉卜林（Rudyard Kipling）1865 年生於印度。19 世紀90 年代，他在英國蜚聲文壇。他的前半生都穿梭往返於這兩個國家之間。1907年，他被授予諾貝爾文學獎，是英國第一位獲此殊榮的作家。兩年以後，他寫下了這首《如果》。他和出生於美國的妻子卡里育有三個孩子，其中兩個都先於他離世。1936年，吉卜林在倫敦去世。