If you come upon someone,
Not a friend, not an enemy, just so,
if you can’t place him at the first moment
as a comrade or a foe,

Take him to the mountains, go!
and don’t let him be alone.
have him hew to you and you to him
and you’ll know what’s in his bones.

If in the mountains this guy, well,
he starts to limp and moan,
if on the glacier face he stumbles,
falling over stones,

Then you are with stranger
but don’t curse him, leave him by.
Don’t waste your time together climbing
and singing of time on high.

Yet if he doesn’t whine or jabber,
though he fumes and feels the strain,
and if when tumbling off the trail,
he holds your rope despite the pain,

if he follows in your footsteps,
and stands drunk against the sky,
It means this one is just as you;
Upon him, rely.