The Gettysburg Adress by Abraham Lincoln
葛底斯堡演说 by 亚伯拉罕·林肯
葛底斯堡战役是美国南北战争中的决定性战役。北方军队经过浴血奋战，大获全胜。为纪念在战役中牺牲的勇士们，修建了葛底斯堡公墓。在落成典礼上，亚伯拉罕·林肯作了这篇经典的演讲。虽说演说只有短短的三分钟，却充满了真挚的感情，哀痛而振奋，沉重而自豪，堪称演讲中的经典之作。
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.
87年前，我们的先辈在这个大陆上创建了一个新国家。她孕育于自由之中，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 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 that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
目前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长久存在下去。我们来到这里把这战场上的一部分奉献给那些为国家生存而捐躯的人们作为他们的最后安息之地。我们这样做是完全适合的、恰当的。
But in a large 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 to 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.
但是从更广泛的意义上来说，我们不能奉献，不能圣化，不能神化这片土地。那些曾在这里战斗过的人，活着的或死去的，已经圣化了这片土地，远非我们的微薄之力所能扬抑。世人极少会注意或长久记得我们今天在这里所说的话，但是勇士们在这里做过的事将永远不会被忘记。倒是我们，活着的人，应该把自己奉献给曾在里战斗的勇士们如此崇高推进的未竟事业。
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 revolve 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.
倒是我们应该在这里把自己奉献给留在我们面前的伟大任务：从这些光荣的死者身上我们汲取更多的献身精神来完成他们精诚所至的事业； 我们在这里下定决心不让死者白白死去；这个国家，在上帝的保佑下，将获得自由的新生。这个民有、民治、民享的政府将与世长存。
（267单词）
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