如果你能保持理性，当你

If you can keep your head when all about you

身边所有人都已失去它，并为此指责你；

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

如果你能信任自我，当所有人都质疑你——

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

但还要给他人留有质疑你的余地；

    But make allowance for their doubting too;

如果你能等待，且不会倦于等待，

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

即使被谎言包围，也不亲口炮制谎言，

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

即使受人憎恨，也不让憎恨进入自己的胸怀。

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

还有，切勿眼中尽善好，尤忌出口皆箴言。

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

如果你能做梦，且不受梦的支使，

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

如果你能思想，且不止步于思想，

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

如果你能在功名与不幸到来时，

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

将两者同样视为虚妄的幻象，

    And treat those two impostors just the same;

如果你能承受，你说出的真相被

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

卑鄙地扭曲，借以诱使愚人中计，

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

或者目睹你置于生命中心的事物，被粉碎，

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

只默然躬身，操着残破的工具重新建起。

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

如果你能留住每一次你赢得的， 积少成多，

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

也能冒险孤注一掷，押上所有积蓄，

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

输了就重新开始，一次次反复来过，

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

呼吸之间，从未流露一个有关失败的词语;

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

如果你能驱策你的心，你的神经和体力，

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

坚守你的岗位，当人们早已离去，

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,

一直守着，直到所有一切都将你遗弃，

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

除了你的意志，它一直告诉它们：“坚持下去！”

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

如果你能与平民聊天，而不降低你的品格，

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

或者与君王同行，也不丢失你的本色，

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

如果无论敌人或是亲密的朋友，都不能伤你分毫，

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

如果对于你，所有人都有价值，但没有谁过于重要;

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

如果你奔跑着，以货真价实的六十秒累加，冲抵

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

不留余地的一分钟面值，

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

世界是你的，其中的每事每物属于你，

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

而且——更重要的是——你将是个男子汉， 我的儿子！

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

译注：

《报偿与仙灵》 是吉卜林于一九一零年出版的短篇故事集，《如果》原本便收录在这本书里。