The White Man's Burden

Breme bijelog čovjeka (The White Man's Burden, 1899) je pjesma koju je napisao Rudyard Kipling za vrijeme Filipinsko-američkog rata (1899–1902). Kiplingove riječi nagone Sjedinjene Države da preuzmu kontrolu nad Filipincima ne bi li ih izbavili iz barbarstva. Naravno tekst je neprestano citiran od strane europskih i američkih konzervativaca kada je riječ o kolonijalizmu i kada je nužno opravdati razne osvajačke ratove koji inače imaju ekonomsku osnovu.
Ukratko, »breme koje snosi bijeli čovjek« su cjelina napora i muka što Zapadnjaci podnose pri osvajanju, obrazovanju »divljih naroda« i ulaganju za njihovo bolje životno stanje. Kipling u pjesmi melankolično ističe kako ishod tih »dobronamjernih« nevolja bijelog čovjeka je uvijek neuspješan. No pri kraju 19. stoljeća kolonijalizam je bio način na koji su europske države tražile nova tržišta a uz to i natjecale se za geopolitičku hegemoniju. Istovremeno put prema koloniji je bio način na koji su vladajuće klase olakšavale unutarnji socijalni pritisak koji im je inače prijetio revolucijom.
Opravdanje kolonijalizma se ovdje oslanja na teoriji liberalizma i na nasleđu prosvjetiteljstva, što je očigledno slučaj Kiplingove pjesme.

Tekst pjesme na engleskom

Take up the White Man's burden —
Send forth the best ye breed —
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild —
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.

Take up the White Man's burden —
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain.
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden —
The savage wars of peace —
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden —
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper —
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go make them with your living,
And mark them with your dead!

Take up the White Man's burden —
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard —
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light: —
"Why brought ye us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden —
Ye dare not stoop to less
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your Gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden —
Have done with childish days —
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!