Gettysburg Address 林肯在葛底斯堡的演说
(Delivered on the 19th Day of November, 1863 Cemetery Hill, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania )
1863年11月19日,葛底斯堡,宾夕法尼亚
Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new Nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now, we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that Nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that Nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
87年前,大家的先辈们在这个国内上创立了一个新国家,它孕育于自由之中,奉行所有生活来平等的原则。目前大家正从事一场伟大的内战,以考验这个国家,或者任何一个孕育于自由和奉行上述原则的国家是不是可以长久存在下去。大家在这场战争中的一个伟大战场上集会。烈士们为使这个国家可以存活下去而献出了我们的生命,大家来到这里,是要把这个战场的一部分奉献给他们作为最后长眠之所。大家如此做是完全应该而且是很适合的。
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead, we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this Nation, under GOD, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the People by the People and for the People shall not perish from the earth.
但,从更广泛的意义上来讲,这块土地大家不可以够奉献,不可以够圣化,不可以够神化。那些曾在这里战斗过的勇士们,活着的和过世的,已经把这块土地圣化了,这远不是大家微薄的力量所能增减的。大家今天在这里所说的话,全世界不大会注意,也不会长久地记住,但勇士们在这里所做过的事,全世界却从来不会忘记。毋宁说,倒是大家这类还活着的人,应该在这里把自己奉献于勇士们已经这样崇高地向前推进但尚没有完成的事业。倒是大家应该在这里把自己奉献于仍然留在大家面前的伟大任务--大家要从这类光荣的死者身上汲取更多的捐躯精神,来完成他们已经完全彻底为之捐躯的事业;大家要在这里下定最大的决心,不让这类死者白白牺牲;大家要使国家在上帝福佑下得到自由的新生,要使这个民有、民治、民享的政府永世长存。
Abraham Lincoln 亚伯拉罕·林肯
背景常识:
在1863年11月19日,正值美国内战中葛底斯堡战役结束后四个半月,林肯在宾夕法尼亚州葛底斯堡的葛底斯堡国家公墓(Gettysburg National Cemetery)揭幕式中发表是之演说,悼念在长达5个半月的葛底斯堡之役中阵亡的将士。林肯的演讲于当天第二顺位发表,修辞细腻周密,其后成为美国历史上最伟大的演说之一。出人预料的是,尽管这场演说名垂青史,声震寰宇,其确切之措辞却颇受争议。五份已知的演说稿,与当时新闻报导中的誊抄本,于若干细节上彼此互异。
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