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The Gettysburg Address
葛底斯堡演說
Fourscore 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.
八十年前，我們的先輩在這塊大陸上創(chuàng)建了一個新的國家。她孕育于自由之中，奉行人人生而平等的原則。
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 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.
現(xiàn)在，我們正從事于偉大的國內(nèi)戰(zhàn)爭，以考驗這個國家，或者說，以考驗任何孕育于自由，奉行人人生而平等的原則的國家能否長久生存。我們聚集在這場戰(zhàn)爭中的一個偉大的戰(zhàn)場上。我們相聚在這里，是為了把這戰(zhàn)場的一部分奉獻給那些為這個國家的生存而獻身的烈士，作為他們的最后安息之所。我們這樣做，是理所當然、恰如其分。
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 honoured 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，我們無法奉獻、無法圣化、無法神化這塊土地。那些曾在這里戰(zhàn)斗過的勇士們，活著的和死去的，已經(jīng)將這塊土地神圣化了，這遠不是我們微薄的力量所能增減的。全世界不大會注意，也不會長久記住我們今天在這里所講的話。但是，全世界永遠不會忘記這些勇士在這里做過的事。對我們這些活著的人來說，倒是應該把自己奉獻于勇士們以崇高的精神向前推進而尚未完成的事業(yè)，應該把自己奉獻于仍然留在我們面前的偉大任務——那就是從這些可敬的死者身上汲取更多的獻身精神，來完成他們?yōu)橹I出全部忠誠的事業(yè)；那就是我們要在這里下定最大的決心，不讓烈士們白白犧牲；那就是使我們的國家在上帝的保佑下獲得自由的新生，要使我們這個民有、民治、民享的政府永世長存。
