If—
"If" is a poem by Rudyard Kipling. It was written in 1895; the poem was first published in the Brother Square Toes chapter of Rewards and Fairies, Kipling's 1910 collection of short stories and poems. Like William Ernest Henley's Invictus, it is a memorable evocation of Victorian stoicism and the "stiff upper lip" that popular culture has made into a traditional British virtue. Its status is confirmed both by the number of parodies it has inspired, and by the widespread popularity it still draws amongst Britons (it was voted Britain's favourite poem in a 1995 BBC opinion poll).
According to Kipling in his autobiography Something of Myself, posthumously published in 1937, the poem was inspired by Dr Leander Starr Jameson, who in 1895 led a raid by British forces against the Boers in South Africa, subsequently called the Jameson Raid.[1] This defeat increased the tensions that ultimately led to the Second Boer War. The British press, however, portrayed Jameson as a hero in the middle of the disaster, and the actual defeat as a British victory.
Reaction to the poem
Kipling himself noted in Something of Myself that the poem had been "printed as cards to hang up in offices and bedrooms; illuminated text-wise and anthologised to weariness".[2]
T.S.Eliot in his essays on Kipling's work describes Kipling's verse as "great verse" that sometimes unintentionally changes into poetry. George Orwell—an ambivalent admirer of Kipling's work who hated the poet's politics—compared people who only knew "If—" "and some of his more sententious poems", to Colonel Blimp.[3]
References to the poem
- The lines "If you can meet with triumph and disaster / And treat those two imposters just the same" are inscribed above the entryway to Centre Court at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon, London. The original version of this inscription appears briefly in Alfred Hitchcock's film Strangers on a Train, with the "two imposters" line showing symbolically during a conversation before the final match, even though the character of Guy Haines is supposed to be playing tennis in New England.
- Verses 1, 2, and half of 3 and 4 are featured in song form, in the musical Just So, which is itself based on the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.
- Another well-known popular culture reference to the poem occurs in the Francis Ford Coppola film, Apocalypse Now. The first three lines of the poem are quoted by the Dennis Hopper character, a photojournalist, immediately before quoting from the T.S. Eliot poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
- The poem has had numerous television and film references, as in The Simpsons episode "Old Money" in which Grandpa Simpson quotes the lines pertaining "a game of pitch and toss" and the final line, "you'll be a man, my son." Homer's response is, "You'll be a bonehead!". It also features in the 2001 British Film "Mike Bassett: England Manager", where Mike Bassett recites the poem during a press conference.[4]
- Interviewer: ...And what would your father say if he could see you now?
- Mike: Oh, he'd probably quote Kipling or something, 'Walk with kings and all that' You see, he was like a father figure to me
- The poem is a plot element in the episode "Matthew 5:6" of the Showtime TV series Brotherhood.
- In a retelling of the origin of The Flash from the comic book Secret Origins, the poem serves as an important plot point. In the story, The Flash, in his every day identity of Wally West, sees the poem (as embodied by his uncle) as the kind of man he would like to be. His own life, however, has been beset by a series of misfortunes and tragedies. Because of this he sees himself as a failure, and unable to live up to the path that the poem has laid before him. The final shot of the story, is split between a reprint of the poem and a depressed Wally West unable to look at the pictures of his life scattered on the floor.
- This poem is also referenced in the movie White Squall when the boys are training on the boat.
- The poem also plays a role and is in parts quoted in Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones novel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.[5]
- The poem is referenced in episode four of I'm Alan Partridge when he said "Like the Rudyard Kipling poem, ‘If’. You know that? ‘If’ you do X, Y and Z, Bob’s your uncle."
- A reference to If can be found in the band Brand New's first single, "Sowing Season (Yeah)," from the album "The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me". The lyrics include the second half of the second verse of the poem. "Is it in you now / To bear to hear the truth that you have spoken / Twisted up by knaves / To make a trap for fools? / Is it in you now / To watch the things you gave your life to, broken? / And then stoop and build them up / With worn out tools?"
- Benjamin Zephaniah created his own version of Kipling's poem, entitled 'What If', which is included in his 2001 collection 'Too Black, Too Strong.'
- At the public memorial service of Australia media mogul and billionaire Kerry Packer AC (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005), Russell Crowe read "If" on behalf of Kerry Packers daughter Gretel (born 1966).
- The final four lines of the poem are shown tacked to the door of Quenton Cassidy's room in John L. Parker Jr.'s novel Once a Runner. A tacked reply from Cassidy reads, "Rudyard Kipling was a 4:30 miler." This is meant as an insult to Kipling.
- "If" was also Ayn Rand´s favourite poem, and was read at her graveside by David Kelley. There were no speeches.[6]
- The first one-and-a-half lines of "If" were uttered by Reggie Bannister to a soon-to-be-decapitated zombie in the cult horror movie, Phantasm III.
- The poem was read at the funeral of Alan Ball, an England World Cup winner, by his son - a funeral remarkable for the standing ovation offered as the coffin was removed from the cathedral.
- The last verse of the poem is shown at the very beginning of the music video for Made You Look by Nas, before the music starts.
- The conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage has read the poem many times on his show and has said that it's among his favorites.
- Portions of the poem have been adapted and set to music by acclaimed singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in a song also titled "If". The song is on her album Shine, to be released in September 2007. [1]
- Singer/songwriter Chuck E. Costa set "If" and four other Rudyard Kipling poems to music on his third EP, "Never Seen A Jaguar."
- The Dangerous Book for Boys has it in its list of 5 poems every boy should read.
Translation
"If" has been translated into a multitude of languages. In 1937 Kipling mentions "seven-and-twenty tongues". One worthy of note is a translation into Burmese language, the mother tongue of the country where the city of another of Kipling's masterpiece "Mandalay" is located. It was translated by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi. Another Nobel laureate to translate "If" was Serbian writer Ivo Andrić.
Some translations are:
- A Kae Ywaet, into Burmese by Aung San Suu Kyi.
- Ako… into Serbian language by Ivo Andrić.
- Ha into Hungarian by Gábor Devecseri .[7]
- Ha… into Hungarian by Kosztolányi Dezső.
- Hvis, into Norwegian by André Bjerke
- Indien, into Dutch by J.M. de Vries de Waal.[8]
- Als, into Dutch by Karel Jonckheere.
- Když, into Czech by Otokar Fischer
- Keď into Slovak by Ľubomír Feldek.[9]
- Se, into Italian by Dario Fonti.
- Si, into French by André Maurois in 1918.
- Tu seras un homme, mon fils, into French by Jules Castier in 1949.
- Заповедь, into Russian by M. Lozinsky.[10]
- Se, into Portuguese by Guilherme de Almeida.[11]
References
- ^ Fordham.edu: Modern History Sourcebook
- ^ Chapter VII of Something of Myself
- ^ George Orwell, Review of A Choice of Kipling's Verse, 1942
- ^ IMDB.com: Quotes from Mike Bassett: England Manager
- ^ Xanga.com: If as taken from Bridget Jones The Edge of Reason
- ^ Jewishvirtuallibrary.org: Ayn Rand
- ^ Tau.ac.il: Comments on Two Hungarian Translations
- ^ 4umi.com: Indien, Kipling translated
- ^ Keď published in Pravda (line breaks are missing)
- ^ Lib.ru: Five Russian versions
- ^ Folha Online 5/5/2007
External links
- Free human-read audio recording of "If—" at Librivox
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