Jadipunya.id – Sebagai penikmat puisi amatiran, alias kadang-kadang, memberikan label favorit pada satu dua puisi Rudyard Kipling sungguh tindakan sembrono. Rudyard Kipling adalah sastrawan besar.

Tapi apa daya, dari banyaknya puisi karya Rudyard Kipling, kami hanya pernah membaca beberapa puisinya, dua diantaranya “If-“ dan “The Thousandth Man”. Keduanya pun langsung ngena di hati. Memang, apresiasi puisi atau karya seni lainnya adalah soal rasa. Rasa tidak pernah statis, selalu berubah sesuai kondisi suhu tubuh: nyaman atau gelisah.

Perkenalan pertama pada puisi ini berawal dari tak sengaja menonton video Youtube Sir Michael Cane. Ia membacakan puisi favoritnya, “If-“, dan menceritakan bahwa itu adalah puisi yang sering dibacakan oleh ayahnya. Dari situ, beberapa baitnya terus terngiang: earworm.

Puisi Rudyard Kipling: “If-“

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) adalah penulis Inggris yang lahir di Bombay (sekarang Mumbay), India. Pada 1907, ia dianugerahi Hadiah Nobel dalam bidang sastra.

Menurut The Poetry Archive, dua buku kumpulan cerita dan puisi Kipling, Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906) dan Rewards and Fairies (1910) sangat sukses. Salah satu puisi dalam Rewards and Fairies yang berjudul “If-”, adalah puisi Rudyard Kipling yang paling terkenal.

If-
by Rudyard Kipling

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 impostors 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;
 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!

Kami juga senang dengan pembacaan puisi “If-” oleh John Hurt.

***

“The Thousandth Man”

by Rudyard Kipling

One man in a thousand, Solomon says,
Will stick more close than a brother.
And it’s worth while seeking him half your days
If you find him before the other.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine depend
On what the world sees in you,
But the Thousandth Man will stand your friend
With the whole round world agin you.

‘Tis neither promise nor prayer nor show
Will settle the finding for ‘ee.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine of ’em go
By your looks or your acts or your glory.
But if he finds you and you find him,
The rest of the world don’t matter;
For the Thousandth Man will sink or swim
With you in any water.

You can use his purse with no more talk
Than he uses yours for his spendings,
And laugh and meet in your daily walk
As though there had been no lendings.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine of ’em call
For silver and gold in their dealings;
But the Thousandth Man he’s worth ’em all,
Because you can show him your feelings.

His wrong’s your wrong, and his right’s your right,
In season or out of season.
Stand up and back it in all men’s sight—
With that for your only reason!
Nine hundred and ninety-nine can’t bide
The shame or mocking or laughter,
But the Thousandth Man will stand by your side
To the gallows-foot—and after!

***

Baca juga: Puisi Kahlil Gibran Tentang Kerja, Cinta yang Kasat Mata

Gimana, jadi punya khazanah wawasan baru kan?

Referensi: artofmanliness | poetryarchive | poetryfoundation

Photo: by Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas from Pexels