Gettysburg Address //在葛斯底堡的演说
(Delivered on the 19th Day of November,1863 Cemetry Hill,Gettysburg,Pennsylvania) //1863年11月19日,宾夕法尼亚州葛底斯堡
Four score and seven years ago,our fathers brought forth on this continent,a new nation,conceived in Liberty,and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. //八十七年前,我们的先辈们在这个大陆上给我们带来了一个新的共和国,它受孕于自由的理念,并致力于人生而平等的理念。
Now,we are engaged in a great civil water,testing whether that nation,or any nation so conceived and so dedicated ,can long endure.We are met on a great battle-field 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 nation might live.It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. //如今,我们卷入了一起巨大的内战之中,以考验我们或者任意一个受孕于自由和致力于以上理想的共和国是否能长久生存下去。我们聚集在这场战争中的一个重要战场上。我们是来把这片战争土地上的一部分作为最后的安息之所奉献给那些为共和国生存下去而献出生命的烈士们。我们这么做完全应该是非常恰当的。
But,in a larger sense,we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground.The brave man ,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 greate 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 govenment of the people,by the people,for the people,shall not perish from the earth. //但是,从更广泛的意义上来讲,不是我们奉献、圣化或神化了这片土地,而是那些活着的或者已经死去的、曾经在这里战斗过的英雄们使得这块土地成为神圣之土,其神圣远非我们的渺小之力可以增减。世人不会注意,也不会记得我们在这里说过什么,但是他们不会忘记英雄们在这里做过什么。 这就更要求我们活着的人继续那些英雄们为之战斗的未尽事业。这更要求我们这些活着的人去继续那些英雄们为之战斗的未尽事业。我们应该在这里把自己奉献于仍然留在我们面前的伟大任务——要从这些光荣的死者身上汲取更多的献身精神,来完成他们已经完全彻底为之献身的事业;我们要在这里下定最大的决心,不让这些死者白白牺牲——要使这个国家在上帝保佑下得到新生——要使这个民有、民治、民享的政府永世长存。