Here is a challenge and an opportunity for all Kipling Admirers
to contribute to the worldwide appreciation of Rudyard Kipling
by helping to build a collection of translations of Kipling's
famous and much loved poem "IF"
"IF' we all do a little ourselves, and persuade as many of our friends
around the world to join in, then perhaps we can present an impressive
collection of translations to the conference at Magdalene College next
September, 2001.
Roman script may be sent to Lisa Lewis by e-mail,
Lisa Lewis <[log in to unmask]>
Other scripts will need to be sent to Jeffery Lewins by fax, electronic fax
or snail mail to preserve the original script and layout.
His fax number for overseas senders is
Jeffery Lewins [your IDD]+44 1223 363637
Please help to make this collection of 'IF' translations a success.
All contributions are welcome.
'IF' you have trouble sending them to Lisa and Jeffery then by all means
send them to me in Hong Kong, China and I will pass them on.
e-mail:<[log in to unmask]>
Fax: +852 2674 0714
Please e-mail first before sending a Fax as my machines are
switched off to avoid lightning strikes up here in the hills.
Best wishes, Ron in Hong Kong.
************************************************************************
Dear ron, sounds a good idea. Contact Lisa Lewis for more help.
A written presentation at the meeting (no registration charge
and I will carry printing costs) would be most acceptable.
Jeffery
from Dr Jeffery Lewins,
Kipling Fellow, Magdalene College
& Engineering Department,
University of Cambridge
CB3 0AG UK
e-mail <[log in to unmask]>
Tel: 01223 276285
facs 363637
********************************
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000
From: Lisa Lewis
Subject: If in confusion
As you will know if you've been on our website lately, Jeffery
Lewins, our new Meetings Secretary and a Cambridge don, is organising a
Kipling Conference at Magdalene College next September.
One of the sessions deals with Kipling in translation.
He's asked me to collect some translations of 'If -' and add them
to the 'piece' I put on the mailbase (thank you for your kind remarks by
the way!). I don't have such a collection; may I ask if you'd be willing
to send me texts of yours? He wants to have this printed up as a pamphlet
to circulate at the Translation session.
It would be a huge help if you would agree to do this. Regards
(and keep mailing - I always enjoy your contributions!)
Lisa Lewis
*********************************
Dear Ron,
Having sent my last, I opened the incoming staff and found it
crossed with yours. Your suggestion sounds a splendid one. There are
versions in Japanese, I believe, and it is said that Aung San Suu Kyi
published one in Burmese in the introduction to a recent book she wrote.
There is also one in Russian. I would'nt know where to find these, but a
gang of keen Asian students could probably turn them up.
Better not send them by email though - this computer isn't rigged
for Cyrillic or Asian scripts! Post to Jeffery at Magdalene? Good
hunting. Lisa
*******************************
Dear Lisa,
Jeffery Lewins has suggested a contribution to next years Kipling Conference
with as many translations of IF that we can find.
I have replied that I have insufficent material myself, but think it would
be a great students project - see below.
I have made some approaches to people here in HK, and Jeffery suggests that
you may be able to help find some people interested in researching and
compiling such a collection.
What say you?
Best wishes, Ron in Hong Kong
*****************
Hello Jeffery,
Living in Hong Kong, I would not be able to get over for the conference
next year.
I only have a few translations of IF at the present time,
not enough to make a worthwhile presentation.
It would be a great project for a student at the Li Po Chun United World
College here, or anywhere else come to that.
I will approach the staff in HK to see if it would fit into anyone's
work schedule, or perhaps each student could be asked to track down a
translation in their own language.
***********************************
Ref: Conference on Kipling and IF translations
Dear ron, sounds a good idea. Contact Lisa Lewis for more help.
A written presentation at the meeting (no registration charge
and I will carry printing costs) would be most acceptable.
Jeffery
from Dr Jeffery Lewins,
Kipling Fellow, Magdalene College
& Engineering Department,
University of Cambridge
**************************************************
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it 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 way 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 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 wornout 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 breath a word about your loss;
If 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 crowds 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!
Rudyard Kipling
*************************************************
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|