We can turn rivers in their courses, level mountains to the plains.
我們能夠使河流改道,能夠把高山夷為平原,海洋、陸地和天空都成了我們進行大規模貿易的通衢。
Oceans and land and sky are avenues for our colossal commerce. Disease diminishes and life lengthens.
疾病大為減少,人的壽命正在延長。
Yet the promise of this life is imperiled by the very genius that has made it possible. Nations amass wealth.
但是,這種生活的希望,正是由于使其成為可能的人類創造才能而處于危險之中。各個國家正在聚積財富。
Labor sweats to create—and turns out devices to level not only mountains but also cities.
勞動的汗水創造并生產出來的器械,不僅可以夷平高山,而且也能摧毀城池。
Science seems ready to confer upon us, as its final gift, the power to erase human life from this planet.
科學看來準備送給人類一件最后的禮物,這就是能把人類生活從這個星球抹去的力量。
At such a time in history, we who are free must proclaim anew our faith.
在這樣一個歷史的時刻,我們既為自由的人,就必須重申我們的信念。
This faith is the abiding creed of our fathers.
這個信念曾是我們先輩奉守的信條,
It is our faith in the deathless dignity of man, governed by eternal moral and natural laws.
也就是關于在永恒道德和自然法則的制約下人類尊嚴永存的信念。
This faith defines our full view of life.
這個信念確定了我們對生活的全部看法,
It establishes, beyond debate, those gifts of the Creator that are man's inalienable rights, and that make all men equal in His sight.
并且無可辯駁地證實了造物主對人類的賜予——即人類擁有多項不可剝奪的權利,所有人在上帝面前一律平等。
In the light of this equality, we know that the virtues most cherished by free people love of truth, pride of work, devotion to country
我們知道,根據這個平等的原則,自由的人民極為珍視的美德乃是熱愛真理、以工作為榮和忠于祖國。
all are treasures equally precious in the lives of the most humble and of the most exalted.
這些不論對最卑賤者還是最高貴者,都是生活中彌足珍貴的寶藏。
The men who mine coal and fire furnaces and balance ledgers and turn lathes and pick cotton and heal the sick and plant corn
那些從事諸如采煤、燒鍋爐、理帳、開車床、摘棉花、治療和種玉米之類工作的人們,
all serve as proudly, and as profitably, for America as the statesmen who draft treaties and the legislators who enact laws.
與草擬條約的政治家和制定法律的立法者一樣,都在自豪而又卓有成效地為美國服務。
This faith rules our whole way of life. It decrees that we, the people, elect leaders not to rule but to serve.
這個信念支配著我們的整個生活方式。它要求我們人民選舉領導人的目的不是為了讓他們統治,而是要他們服務;
It asserts that we have the right to choice of our own work and to the reward of our own toil.
它宣布我們,有權選擇自己的工作,有權得到自己勞動的報酬;
It inspires the initiative that makes our productivity the wonder of the world.
它激發我們的首創精神,使我國生產力成為世界一大奇跡;
And it warns that any man who seeks to deny equality among all his brothers betrays the spirit of the free and invites the mockery of the tyrant.
它還告誡我們,任何人如果企圖否認其同胞的平等,就等于背叛了自由的精神,必定招致暴君的嘲弄。