英語美文名人勵志故事41:林肯發(fā)表葛底斯堡演說的故事
41. The Gettysburg Address
41. 葛底斯堡演說
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created
87年以前，我們的先輩們在這個大陸上創(chuàng)立了一個新國家。它孕育于自由之中，奉行一切人生來平等的原則。
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 battle field of what 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.
現(xiàn)在我們正從事一場偉大的內(nèi)戰(zhàn)，以考驗這個國家，或者說以考驗任何一個孕育于自由而奉行上述原則的國家是否能夠存在下去。我們在這場戰(zhàn)爭中的一個偉大戰(zhàn)場上集會。烈士們?yōu)槭惯@個國家能夠生存下去而獻出了自己的生命，我們在此集會是為了把這個戰(zhàn)場的一部分奉獻給他們作為最后安息之所。我們這樣做是完全應(yīng)該而且非常恰當?shù)摹?/p>
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not--we can not consecrate 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 be 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, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
但是，從更廣泛的意義上來說，這塊土地我們不能夠奉獻，不能夠圣化，不能夠神化。曾在這里戰(zhàn)斗過的勇士們，活著的和死了的，已經(jīng)把這塊土地神圣化了。這遠不是我們微薄的力量所能增減的。全世界將很少注意到、也不會長期地記起我們在這里所說的話，但全世界永遠不會忘記勇士們在這里做過的事。毋寧說，倒是我們這些還活著的人，應(yīng)該在這里把自己奉獻于勇士們已經(jīng)如此崇高地向前推進但尚未完成的事業(yè)，倒是我們應(yīng)該在這里把自己奉獻于仍然留在我們面前的偉大任務(wù)，以便使我們從這些光榮的死者身上汲取更多的獻身精神，來完成他們已經(jīng)完全徹底為之獻身的事業(yè)，以便使我們在這里下定最大的決心，不讓這些死者白白犧牲，以便使國家在上帝福佑下得到自由的新生，并且使這個民有、民治、民享的政府永世長存。
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