Akira The Don - Self Control lyrics

Hard work and persistence
Self-reliance, always
Strength, perseverance, self-control
Hard work and persistence
Self-reliance, always cheerful
Strength, perseverance, self-control ay

Compassion
Unwavering adherence to decisions once
He’d reached them
Indifference to superficial honors
Listening to anyone who could contribute
To the public good
His dogged determination to treat
People as they deserved
A sense of when to push and when to back off
His altruism
Not expecting his friends to keep
Him entertained at dinner
Or to travel with him
And anyone who had to stay behind
To take care of something
Always found him the same when he returned

His searching questions at meetings
A kind of single-mindedness almost
Never content with first impressions
Or breaking off the discussion prematurely
His constancy to friends
Never getting fed up with them
Or playing favorites

And his advance planning well in advance
And his discreet attention to
Even minor things
His restrictions on acclamations
And all attempts to flatter him
His constant devotion to the empire’s needs
His stewardship at the treasury
Willingness to take responsibility and blame
For both his attitude to the gods
No superstitiousness his attitude to men
No demagoguery
No currying favor, no pandering
Always sober, always steady
Never vulgar or a prey to fads
No currying favor, no pandering
Always sober, always steady
Never vulgar or a prey to fads

Hard work and persistence
Self-reliance, always
Strength, perseverance, self-control
Hard work and persistence
Self-reliance, always cheerful
Strength, perseverance, self-control ay

The way he handled the material comforts
That fortune had supplied him
In such abundance
Without arrogance and without apology
If they were there, he took advantage
If not, he didn’t miss them
No one ever called him glib
Or shameless, or pedantic
They saw him for what he was
A man tested by life accomplished
Unswayed by flattery qualified to govern
Both himself and them both himself and them
Ay

His respect for people
Who practiced philosophy
At least, for those sincere about it
But without denigrating the others
Or listening to them
His ability to feel at ease with people
And to put them at their
Ease without being pushy ay

His willingness to take adequate
Care of himself not a hypochondriac obsessed
With his appearance
But not ignoring things either
With the result that he hardly
Ever needed medical attention
Or drugs or any sort of salve or ointment
This in particular (This in particular)
His willingness to yield the floor to experts
In oratory, law, psychology, whatever
And to support them energetically
So each could fulfill his potential
He respected tradition
Without need to constantly
Congratulate himself for
Safeguarding traditional values
Not prone to go off on tangents
Or pulled in all directions
But sticking with the same old places
And the same old things
The way he could have one of his migraines
Then go right back to what he was doing
Fresh and at the top of his game
That he had so few secrets
Only state secrets in fact
And not all that many
Of those the way he kept public actions
Within reasonable bounds
Games, building projects
Because he looked to what needed doing
And not the credit to be gained from doing it

No bathing at strange hours
No self-indulgent building projects
No concern for food
Or the cut and color of his clothes
Or having attractive slaves
He never exhibited rudeness, lost
Control of himself, turned violent
No one saw him sweat
Everything was to be approached logically
And with due consideration
In a calm and orderly fashion but decisively
With no loose ends
You could have said of him
That he knew how to enjoy
And abstain from things
That most find hard to abstain from
And all too easy to enjoy
But to be strong enough
Both, to bear the one
And be sober in the other
Is the mark of a man with
A perfect and invincible soul ay
But to be strong enough
Both, to bear the one
And be sober in the other
Is the mark of a man with
A perfect and invincible soul

Hard work and persistence
Self-reliance, always
Strength, perseverance, self-control
Hard work and persistence
Self-reliance, always cheerful
Strength, perseverance, self-control