If

迈克尔・杰克逊的墓志铭:《如果》If ― Rudyard Kipling

如果 ―― 拉迪亚德・吉卜林

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

如果周围的人毫无理性地向你发难,你仍能镇定自若保持冷静;

 

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

如果众人对你心存猜忌,你仍能自信如常并认为他们的猜忌情有可原;

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,

或遭人诽谤却不以牙还牙,

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

或遭人憎恨却不以恶报恶;

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

既不装腔作势,亦不气盛趾高;

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

如果你有梦想,而又不为梦主宰;

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;

如果你坦然面对胜利和灾难,对虚渺的胜负荣辱胸怀旷荡;

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

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

如果你能忍受有这样的无赖,歪曲你的口吐真言蒙骗笨汉,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

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

或看着心血铸就的事业崩溃,仍能忍辱负重脚踏实地重新攀登;

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胜利,为了更崇高的目标孤注一掷,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

面临失去,决心从头再来而绝口不提自己的损失;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

如果人们早已离你而去,你仍能坚守阵地奋力前驱,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

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

身上已一无所有,唯存意志在高喊"顶住";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

如果你跟平民交谈而不变谦虚之态,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;

亦或与王侯散步而不露谄媚之颜;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

如果敌友都无法对你造成伤害;

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

如果众人对你信赖有加却不过分依赖;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -

如果你能惜时如金利用每一分钟不可追回的光阴;

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

那么,你的修为就会如天地般博大,并拥有了属于自己的世界,

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

更重要的是:孩子,你成为了真正顶天立地之人!

(作者拉迪亚德•吉卜林:十九世纪末英国诗人,曾旅居印度,游历美国、南非、加拿大等国家,于1907年获得诺贝尔文学奖。他的诗仿佛在不经意中完成,却往往产生巨大反响。一位作家这样评价拉迪亚德•吉卜林:"不仅在文学上,乃至在世界上的所有英语国家中,他都被认为是最具影响力的人。"《如果》是一首相当励志的诗,曾被译成27国语言作为学习的教材,许多人,特别是青少年常以此勉励自己,激发前进动力。)


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