If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs and blaming it on you… Imposing in its simplicity and brevity, "If" by Rudyard Kipling serves as a vivid reminder that often in life, triumph is merely a heartbeat away from disaster, without implying that each of us cannot face both with awareness and dignity, learning from everything.

The poem was first published in 1910, as part of the collection of fairy stories "Rewards and Fairies." Decades later, in 1995, "If" was voted as the favorite poem in all of British literature.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), the author of "The Jungle Book," "Kim," "The Man Who Would Be King," and "If," was born in Bombay to British parents. He spent his school years in England and shortly before reaching adulthood returned to India, where he published his first poems and short stories.

With his undeniable narrative talent, he managed to capture an entire era, that of the European empires which would soon become a thing of the past, and his literary reputation quickly spread across the globe.

In 1907, Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – he was the first English-language writer to receive the award and remains to this day its youngest recipient.