IF ______By   Joseph Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming 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 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 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 sniew 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 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 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!

英国现代作家吉卜林（1865-1936）。

怎样才能称得上是一个真正的人？恐怕千人千论，标准无法统一。吉卜林却凭借手中妙笔，勾勒出一幅毕加索式的立体画，使人生种种境遇，跃然纸上。做人最重要的是要有自信和持久的耐心。在面临考验时，要百折不挠、顽强拼搏；与人交往时不卑不亢，以智者的胸襟包容一切；更要珍惜时光，奋斗不息。短短的一首诗，语言质朴、风格简约，在平平淡淡之中蕴含着深邃的哲理，如一杯清茶，在心田里留下几缕清香，令人久久回味。

2017.11.19