IF, a poem by Rudyard Kipling

PHOTO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling

It is a very inspirational poem. I read it for the first time when I was fifteen years old. And it changed my life.

Follow the first link and you will listen to Harvey Keitel reading the original poem (with the Spanish version). This is a commercial on CNN. It belongs to the Series of poems 1997, Thoughts that transcend, Union Bank of Switzerland. Copyright of UBS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=url4mfAAYdE&feature=related

Or if you like Federer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFcJPecO568&feature=related

Do you prefer Dennis Hooper?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EZhc_YZ2fs&feature=related

A song by Joni Mitchell based on the poem?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m78cSts3tJw&feature=related

Or in French:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebCEtIviBDI&feature=related

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature. He was born in Bombay, in the Bombay Presidency of British India, and was taken by his family to England when he was five years old. Kipling is best known for his works of fiction, including The Jungle Book (a collection of stories which includes "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"),Just So Stories (1902) (1894), Kim (1901) (a tale of adventure), many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888); and his poems, including Mandalay (1890), Gung Din (1890), The White Man's Burden (1899) and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major "innovator in the art of the short story"; his children's books are enduring classics of children's literature; and his best works are said to exhibit "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".

Kipling was one of the most popular writers in England, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling