亚伯拉罕·林肯

亚伯拉罕·林肯

背景介绍

亚伯拉罕•林肯是美国第16任总统，在其总统任期内，美国爆发了内战，即南北战争。其间的葛底斯堡战役持续长达五个半月，是北美史上规模最大、伤亡最惨重的战役，它扭转了整个战争的战局，最终北军赢得胜利。此战役结束后四个半月，林肯在葛底斯堡国家公墓揭幕式上发表葛底斯堡演说，哀悼在葛底斯堡战役中阵亡的战士。林肯在演说中提出了“民有、民治、民享”的口号。

Abraham Lincoln: “The Gettysburg Address”

November 19th, 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

亚伯拉罕•林肯：葛底斯堡演说

1863年11月19日，宾夕法尼亚州葛底斯堡

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 nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

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.

译文：

在八十七年前，我们的国父们在这块土地上创建一个新的国家，乃基于对自由的坚信，并致力于所有人皆生而平等的信念。

当下吾等被卷入一场伟大的内战，以考验是否此国度，或任何基于和奉献于斯者，可永垂不朽。吾等现相逢于此战中一处浩大战场。而吾等将奉献此战场之部分，作为这群交付彼者生命让那国度勉能生存的人们最后安息之处。此乃全然妥切且适当而为吾人应行之举。

但，于更大意义之上，吾等无法致力、无法奉上、无法成就此土之圣。这群勇者，无论生死，曾于斯奋战到底，早已使其神圣，而远超过吾人卑微之力所能增减。这世间不曾丝毫留意，也不长久记得吾等于斯所言，但永不忘怀彼人于此所为。

吾等生者，理应当然，献身于此辈鞠躬尽瘁之未完大业。吾等在此责无旁贷献身于眼前之伟大使命：自光荣的亡者之处吾人肩起其终极之奉献—吾等在此答应亡者之死当非徒然—此国度，于神佑之下，当享有自由之新生—民有、民治、民享之政府当免于凋零。