我很喜歡的一篇文:
一九0七年的諾貝爾文學獎得主
英國詩人
Rudyard Kipling 作品
『如果』
如果舉世倉皇失措,人人埋怨你,
你仍冷靜如斯,
如果舉世見疑,你仍能容忍他人對你的懷疑,
依然相信自己。
如果你能等待並安於靜靜等待,
即使遭人欺騙,也不欺騙別人,
即使受憎恨,也不懷半點怨恨,
同時不至於讓人感覺太過美好 或太過睿智。
如果你能做夢,但不讓夢境主宰你,
如果你能思考,但不讓思考限縮你的視野,
如果你尚能面對「成功」和「挫敗」,
還能對這兩種虛妄都用同樣心情處之。
如果你能忍受你曾堅持的信仰,
被無賴者扭曲成愚弄人的陷阱,
或眼看你窮其一生所成就的被毀滅,
然後卑屈地以殘破的工具企圖把他重建:
如果你把你贏得的榮耀堆成一疊,
孤注一擲地押出去,
然後輸了,並重新再來,
但從不埋怨這失敗。
如果你心力早已衰竭,
你仍能迫使僅餘的心力為你效力,
當你心中除了呼喊「絕不放手」的意志外一無所有,
你仍堅持下去。
如果你能感召群眾而仍保持著德性,
或與王者同行仍平易近人,
如果敵或友都再無法傷害你,
如果所有人都恰如其份地信賴你,
如果你能用盡六十秒的狂奔,
去填充那無情的每一分鐘,
這個世界及其一切都將是屬於你的,
如此,我兒,你將是個人中之人。
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 away 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 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 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
Expect the Will, which says to them: ”hold on!”
If you can talk with crows 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 minutes
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run---
Tour is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And---which is more--- you’ll be a Man, my son!