If Kipling was Lebanese

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on politicians;

If you can trust no leader when all others blindly follow,

But make no allowance for their ignorance too;

If you can no longer wait, and is tired of waiting,

Or being lied about, then deal with the lies,

Or being hated just let them with their hating;

And yet you don’t compromise, nor give up:

If you can make your voice heard, and never shy away;

If you can think, and not let others think for you;

If you can meet with slogans and promises

And eradicate those two impostors with a swift blow,

If you can apply onto you that patriotism you profess

Unshaken by various attempts to demean or diminish it,

Or watch others bargain with the souls of those who fell,

And never think that you can leave it to history books;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk alongside men, but not follow blindly,

If neither foes nor friends you lend your trust to,

If some men count with you, but none too much;

If you can cherish this Biblical land and protect it with your blood,

Yours is dignified life and all that it entails,

And – which is more—you’ll be Lebanese my son !