If by Rudyard Kipling

Σάββατο, 1 Νοέμβριος, 2008 in Feel it, Αναδημοσιεύσεις
Ετικέτες: If, poem, Rudyard Kipling

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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 your can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters 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 breathe 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 walk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose your 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!

Το γνωστό ποίημα του Κίπλινγκ, «Αν» το ξαναβρήκα τυχαία σήμερα και ομολογώ ότι δεν μπορούσα να αντισταθώ στην αναδημοσίευσή του…
Ελπίζω σε κάποιους από εσάς να αποτελέσει ενδιαφέρον ανάγνωσμα και όχι μόνο.