如果
如果你身边所有人失去理智 并将之归咎于你
你仍能保持冷静
如果全天下都怀疑你
你仍能相信自己 并体谅别人的怀疑
如果 你能等待 并且保持耐心
或被人欺骗 却不去报复
或遭人怨恨 亦不以牙还牙
不去光彩照人 也不去夸夸其谈
如果你能梦想 却不做梦想的奴隶
如果你能思考 却不是为了思考而思考
如果 面对凯旋与灾难
你都可以淡然处之
如果你能忍受自己说出的真理
被无赖歪曲 拿去唬弄无知的人
或看到曾用生命投入的事物 破裂
却能俯身 用破旧的工具将之缝补
如果你能连连成功
仍敢放手一搏
失败,然后从头再来
却从不言及失败
如果你能绷紧全身神经
恪守使命直到最后一刻
坚持到力气全无
除了意志 仍在高喊:“挺住”!
如果你能与人群交谈 并牢记自己的品德
或与君王同行 亦不失平民本色
如果所有人对你都重要 又不那么重要
如果敌人或挚友 都无从伤害到你
如果你能分秒必争
每一刻都过得充实
整个地球 整个世界将属于你
而更重要的是 我的儿子 你也将长大成人。
——拉迪亚德-吉卜林(英国)
IF
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 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 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 you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!
By Rudyard Kipling
(1865-1936, 英国小说家,诗人,本国第一位诺贝尔文学奖获得者)