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葛底斯堡公墓的演说 Gettysburg Address

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亚伯拉罕·林肯/Abraham Lincoln

亚伯拉罕·林肯(1809-1865),政治家,第16任美国总统(任期:1861年3月4日-1865年4月15日),是首位美国共和党籍总统,也是历史上首名遇刺身亡的总统。

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 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.

87年前,我们的先辈们在这块大陆上创建了一个新的国家,它孕育于自由之中,奉行一切人生而平等的原则。现在我们正处于一场大规模的内战之中,战争将会考验这个国家,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。我们聚集在这个伟大的战场上。烈士们为这个国家的生存而献出了自己的生命,我们聚集在这里,是要把这个战场的一部分奉献给他们,作为他们最后的安息地。我们这样做是完全应该而且非常恰当的。