George Candy

If

Thanks to Nola Muller.

If you can keep your bread when all about you
are eating theirs and thinking less of you
If you don’t curse the Iti’s when they count you,
and keep you half the evening in the que;
If you can bear to hear the propaganda,
given as news and news considered sound,
But yet be glad to hear and count it grander
than all the senseless rumours floating round.

If you can wait and oh what endless waiting,
without one gleam of hope to light the way,
And spend your time at lectures or debating
and suck the value out of each day.
If you can meet with boredom and starvation
and treat these two tormentors just the same,
Or face without a qualm the realisation
that dysentery is all part of the game.

If you can sleep on concrete without a feeling,
If you can think on half a bowl of rice,
And take your soup and gristle without squealing,
Or joke about a trousers full of lice;
If you can face the coming winter weather
with half the clothing you require,
Yet tell yourself we’re in together,
That comradeship is warmer than a fire.

If you can front such problems without whining
Or giving way to woes and hates and fears.
But ever keep your courage high and shining
Even though this go on for months or years.
If with all this your heart can still say sooner
Than Wop or Jerry thinks I shall be free,
My son, you’ll stick it out until Tarhuna
Be nothing more than just a dream.