【Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address】 (1863年 林肯總統的蓋茲演講文) 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，我們的父祖在這個大陸上創立了一個新國家， 她孕育於自由之中，並奉獻於人生而平等的主張。 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 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 the nation might live. It is altogther fitting and proper that we should do this. 現在，我們正進行一場偉大的內戰，它正考驗著這個國家或 任何孕育於自由並為相同主張而奉獻給為了國家的生存而 犠牲生命的人們，作為最後安息之所。我們這樣做是完全恰 當正確的。 But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not 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 govermment of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 然而，從更廣的意義上來說，我們不能奉獻─我們不能神化─ 我們不能聖化--這塊土地，因為那些曾在此奮戰過的勇士 們，活著的和去世的，已經將它化為神聖了，遠非我們微薄 的力量所能予以增減。 世界將不大注意，也不會長久記得 我們在此所說的話，但它永遠不會忘記勇士們在此所做的 事。 我們生者毋寧應該奉獻於在此戰鬥過的人們業已卓絕 地推展但未竟全功的志業。 我們應該在此獻身給仍然留在 我們面前的偉大任務--我們要從光榮的死者身上，取得更大 的熱忱來奉獻於他們已為之鞠躬盡瘁獻出一切的使命--我們 在此下定最大決心要使這些死者不致白白犠牲─務使我們 的國家，在上帝的庇佑之下，獲得自由的新生─並願民有、 民治、民享的政府將永存於世。
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 20:12:09 +0000