Russian Folk Festival 2014

If you can see the work of your life destroyed,

And without saying a word to rebuild you,

Or lose in one stroke the gain of one hundred, Without a gesture and without a sigh,

If you can be a lover without being mad with love;

If you can be strong without ceasing to be tender,

And feeling hated, without hating in your turn,

Yet to fight and defend you;

You can bear to hear your words,

Travesties by beggars to excite fools,

And to hear lying on you their mad mouths, Without lying yourself with a word;

If you can remain dignified by being popular,

If you can remain a people by advising the Kings,

And if you can love all your friends as brothers, Without any of them being all to you, You know how to meditate,

Observe and know, without ever becoming skeptical or destructive,

Dream, but without letting your dream be your master,

Thinking, without being a thinker;

If you can be hard without ever being in a rage,

If you can be brave and never reckless,

If you can be good, if you know how to be wise,

Without being moral or pedantic;

You can meet triumph after defeat,

And to receive these two liars on the same front,

If you can keep your courage and your head,

When others lose them;

Then the Kings, the Gods, the Luck, and the Victory,

Will be your slaves forever submissive,

And, what is better than Kings, and Glory, YOU WILL BE A MAN MY SON! KIPLING.