葛底斯堡演说

Gettysburg Address

葛底斯堡演说‍

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创立了一个新的国家，她孕育于自由的理念之中，奉行一切人生来平等的原则。

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.

现在，我们正在进行一场伟大的内战，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，是否能够长久存在下去。我们在这场战争中的一个伟大战场上集会。我们来到这里，就是要把这个战场的一部分奉献给那些为了国家的生存而捐躯的人们，使其成为他们最后的安息之所。我们这样做是完全应该而且是非常恰当的。

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 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.

但是，从更广泛的意义上来说，这块土地我们不能够奉献，不能够圣化，不能够神化。那些曾在这里战斗过的勇士们，活着的和死去的，已经把这块土地圣化了，这远不是我们微薄的力量所能增减的。我们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，但是勇士们在这里的丰功伟绩，全世界却永远不会忘记。毋宁说，倒是我们这些还活着的人，应该在这里把自己奉献给勇士们已经如此崇高地向前推进但尚未完成的事业。倒是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，我们要从这些光荣的牺牲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，不让这些烈士们白白牺牲；我们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。