Here’s Dave Fitzpatrick reading Pablo Neruda’s “I Don’t Love You”. You might like it better than this. www.youtube.com If you think the views expressed in this poem are admirable, you should consider what George Orwell said about Kipling: 4umi.com Also you could listen to Roger Whittaker, “I Don’t Believe In ‘If’ Anymore” www.youtube.com Kipling wrote this poem for his son John then aged 12. Later he pulled strings to get John into the Great War, and John was killed in 1915. Later Kipling wrote this codicil about his son and all the other dead sons: : “If any question why we died, tell them, because our fathers lied”. Thus “If” does not represent Kipling’s views. WARNING. WHAT FOLLOWS IS BRITISH HUMOUR. Some of my tastier friends from the underworld don’t understand Kipling’s archaic language, so I promised them a verse by verse translation. It should be read in parallel with the original. Keep schtum: admit nothing: the watchword is Plausible Deniability – okay that’s two watchwords – they can’t just say it : at the end of the day they have to prove it and produce evidence. Remember that witnesses can be bought or frightened off. Just stay cool and alert, sleep with one eye open and watch your back. Make like there’s all the time in the world: eventually they’ll run out of patience and make a mistake. If they tell lies about you and you can prove it, sue the bastards. Love your enemies because that really annoys them. Don’t let on how smart you are. Pretend to be nice …
Related posts:
- “Hiawatha’s Photographing” by Lewis Carroll (poetry reading)
- A Poetry Reading
- Poetry Reading: Ted Kooser
- “When the Young Husband” by Donald Hall (poetry reading)
- Simon Armitage Reading in the 2008 Dodge Poetry Festival Saturday Night Sampler – 9/27/08
Very unique and interesting find. I never heard that and was glad I did afterward. Thank You for sharing.
@VaudevilleSchtick101 No, it’s read by me, Tom O’Bedlam. I read everything in the SpokenVerse channel – including the poems of W H Auden
Is this being spoken by W.H. Auden??
absolutely love it
@benjamin0520 You can make it into an mp3 for your iPod. Just copy the URL then go to my channel page and follow the link to convert it.
this so insperational from a runner’s point of view holycrap dude i wish i could get this for an ipod… be willing to throw everything you have away for glory… but still be humble even if you are the best because everything can be lost in just a milli second… this is so inspiring
@W5RAn Thank you, it’s heartening to get such appreciation
this is read so well. the careful tone in sync with a very measured prescription for manhood… we are posting at at W5RAn in the words section May 4th – thanks so much for sharing this.
beautiful..would love to hear ‘If we must die’ by Claude McKay..thanks
I just discovered your channel today, you’ve got a great voice for this, and more importantly, you know how to read it properly.
Leonard Cohen wrote something about that, it’s called “How to speak poetry” and it’s a good read, perhaps you can record it and put it here some time?
I love the readers voice. It’s nice to listen to.
@gr82bmissy No reading pleases everybody. Did you listen to my first reading of this poem, which doesn’t stress the word “If”? It’s in the video link box.
fantastic poem gret choice and good voice
Oooooooh that was beautiful! Very nice I like that!
‘If all men count with you, but none too much…..’ Genius!
Balance. Contradiction. Life.
I guess his intentions for the poem are different than how it is received. The poem took on a life of its own. So in a different context, it can carry a different meaning for everyone. That’s the definition of art.
Isolation is not a bad thing, if you choose to be alone. It is where some of the best works are done. Man is made in the image of God. We can aspire to do great things with our lives. I sympathize with Kipling. To think of what experiences in his life enable him to write this poem is impressive. It tells me that I am not alone. I understand where he is coming from. He wrote it probably because he hopes others can relate, so as not to be alone.
I don’t take it so literally. But if I did, can I do it. Are material things so important. Yes! But don’t you just want to know that you can do what needs to be done. And to be able to do it again! Ah, but lIfe is too short, too hard. We don’t have the means to start over again. Yet we can imagine. I think that is its power. It inspires.
I think that this poem is comlpetley true. I love IT!
The poem portrays a world full of hardships and a bleak vision of human nature, warning of attacks and betrayals and that people can’t be trusted. It recommends an isolated solitary, guarded existence. To people with a similar expeience of life, “If” seems to provide a set of maxims to attain self-realisation.
To others “If” is a prescription for spiritual isolation and failure. I think it was Churchill who said the last line should read “You’ll be a God, my son”.
I have a tattered and treasured copy of ‘Thy Servant, A Dog’ …it’s a childhood favourite.
Kipling has been properly criticized for his anti semitic views, but his writing stands alone.
@SpokenVerse I don’t think it really means that…as in reckless gambling.
I read it as having the grit to take a calculated risk and face losses with dignity….Life sometimes requires that of us. Some of the criticism I hear seems to come from taking the words absolutely
l i t e r a l l y.
I discovered ‘If’ when I was 10 and knew it would guide me in life. It has served me well. Tough time right now…needed to hear it.
Thank you for reading so beautifully.
If it inspires you to liquidate everything you have acquired and gamble it all on the toss of a coin, lose everything you have and start all over again, will you still think it to be good advice? I’m curious, so please tell me.