英语诗二首(经典)

If------
By Joseph Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
I f 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;
I f 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 on one turn of pitch-and toss
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
I f 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
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!
You are Old, Father William
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
1"You are old, father William," the young man said,
2 "And your hair has become very white;
3And yet you incessantly stand on your head --
4 Do you think, at your age, it is right?"
5"In my youth," father William replied to his son,
6 "I feared it would injure the brain;
7But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
8 Why, I do it again and again."
9"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
10 And have grown most uncommonly fat;
11Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door --
12 Pray, what is the reason of that?"
13"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
14 "I kept all my limbs very supple
15By the use of this ointment -- one shilling the box --
16 Allow me to sell you a couple." 17"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
18 For anything tougher than suet;
19Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak --
20 Pray, how did you manage to do it?"
21"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
22 And argued each case with my wife;
23And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
24 Has lasted the rest of my life." 25"You are old," said the youth; one would hardly suppose
26 That your eye was as steady as ever;
27Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose --
28 What made you so awfully clever?"
29"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
30 Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!
31Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
32 Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!"。