林肯葛底斯堡演说(中英文对照)

An Ide ntity of One’s Own In the eternal universe, every human being has a one-off chance to live his existence is unique and irretrievable, for the mold with which he was made, as Rousseau said, was broken by god immediately afterwards.Fame, wealth and knowledge are merely worldly possessions that are within the reach of anybody striving for them. But your experience of and feelings about life are your own and not to be shared. No one can live yor life over again after your death. A full awareness of this will point out to you that the most important thing in your existence is you distinctive individuality or something special of yours. What really counts is not your worldly success but your peculiar insight into the meaning of life and your commitment to it, which add luster to your personality. It is not easy to be what one really is. There is many a person in the world who can be identic-feed as anything either his job, his status or his social role that shows no trace about his individuality. It does do him justice to say that he has no identity of his own, if he doesn’t know his own mind and all his things are either arranged by others or done on others’ suggestions; if his life, always occupied by external things, Is completely void of an inner world. You won’t be able to find anything whatever, from head to heart, that truly belongs to him. He is, indeed, no more than a shadow cast by somebody else or a machine capable of doing business.

作为自己在永恒宇宙中的一种身份，每个人都有一次机会过上自己的生活，这是独一无二的，是无法挽回的，因为卢梭所说的那样，他被造的模子，在那之后立即被上帝打破了。名望、财富和知识只是任何人都能得到的世俗财富。但你对生活的体验和感受是你自己的，不可分享。你死后没人能再活一次。对这一点的充分认识将向你指出，在你的存在中，最重要的是你独特的个性或你的一些特殊的东西。真正重要的不是你在世界上的成功，而是你对生活意义的独特洞察和对生活的承诺，这些都为你的个性增光添彩。做一个真正的人并不容易。世界上有许多人，无论是工作、地位还是社会角色，都可以把自己看成是没有个性痕迹的人。如果他不了解自己的思想，所有的事情不是由别人安排的，就是按照别人的建议去做的，如果他的生活总是被外在的事物占据，那么说他没有自己的身份是对的，完全没有一个内心世界。你将无法找到任何真正属于他的东西。事实上，他不过是别人投下的阴影，或是一台有能力做生意的机器。

林肯葛底斯堡演讲，仅3分钟272单词，却是英语演讲的最高典范！

Four score 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.

八十七年以前，我们的祖先在这大陆上建立了一个国家，它孕育于自由，并且献身给一种理念，即所有人都是生来平等的。

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. 当前，我们正在从事一次伟大的内战，我们在考验，究竟这个国家，或任何一个有这种主张和这种信仰的国家，是否能长久存在。

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.

我们在那次战争的一个伟大的战场上集会。我们来到这里，奉献那个战场上的一部分土地，作为在此地为哪个国家的生存而牺牲了自己生命的人的永久眠息之所。我们这样做，是十分合情合理的。

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground.

可是，就更深一层意义而言，我们是无从奉献这片土地的--无从使它成为圣地--也不能把它变为人们景仰之所。

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.

那些在这里战斗的勇士，活着的和死去的，已使这块土地神圣化了，远非我们的菲薄能力所能左右。

世人会不大注意，更不会长久记得我们在此地所说的话，然而他们将永远忘不了这些人在这里所做的事。

相反，我们活着的人应该献身于那些曾在此作战的人们所英勇推动而尚未完成的工作。

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, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

我们应该在此献身于我们面前所留存的伟大工作--由于他们的光荣牺牲，我们要更坚定地致力于他们曾作最后全部贡献的那个事业--

我们在此立志宣誓，不能让他们白白死去--要使这个国家在上帝的庇佑之下，得到新生的自由--要使那民有、民治、民享的政府不致从地球上消失。