IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
如果周圍的人毫無理性地向你發難,你仍能鎮定自若保持冷靜;
IF you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too;
如果眾人對你心存猜忌,你仍能自信如常並認為他們的猜忌情有可原;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
如果你肯耐心等待不急不躁,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
或遭人誹謗卻不以牙還牙,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
或遭人憎恨卻不以惡報惡;
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
既不裝腔作勢,亦不氣盛趾高;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
如果你有夢想,而又不為夢主宰;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
如果你有神思,而又不走火入魔;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same;
如果你坦然面對勝利和災難,對虛渺的勝負榮辱胸懷曠蕩;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
如果你能忍受有這樣的無賴,歪曲你的口吐真言蒙騙笨漢,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;
或看著心血鑄就的事業崩潰,仍能忍辱負重腳踏實地重新攀登;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
如果你敢把取得的一切勝利,為了更崇高的目標孤注一擲,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss;
面臨失去,決心從頭再來而絕口不提自己的損失;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone,
如果人們早已離你而去,你仍能堅守陣地奮力前驅,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them:"Hold on";
身上已一無所有,唯存意志在高喊「頂住」;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
如果你跟平民交談而不變謙虛之態,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
亦或與王侯散步而不露諂媚之顏;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
如果敵友都無法對你造成傷害;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
如果眾人對你信賴有加卻不過分依賴;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
如果你能惜時如金利用每一分鐘不可追回的光陰;
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
那麼,你的修為就會如天地般博大,並擁有了屬於自己的世界,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
更重要的是:孩子,你成為了真正頂天立地之人!
來源:邁克.傑克遜的墓誌銘
(作者拉迪亞德•吉卜林:十九世紀末英國詩人,曾旅居印度,遊歷美國、南非、加拿大等國家,於1907年獲得諾貝爾文學獎。他的詩彷彿在不經意中完成,卻往往產生巨大反響。一位作家這樣評價拉迪亞德•吉卜林:“不僅在文學上,乃至在世界上的所有英語國家中,他都被認為是最具影響力的人。)
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