Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

盖茨堡位于美国宾夕法尼亚州。1863 年7 月1 日至3 日，北军在此重创了南军，扭转了战争局势。此战役后这里修建了一个战争牺牲者的公墓。本篇是1863 年在公墓落成典礼上林肯的演说词。

 

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. 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. 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 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.
　
[注释]：
Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865), 16th president of the United States (1861—1865)
林肯，美国第十六任总统　
fourscore and seven years ago: eighty-seven years ago, here referring to the year 1776, when
the United States of America declared its independence 87 年前，指1776 年美国宣布独立时
father: forefather 祖先　
brought forth: gave birth to 缔造　
conceived in liberty: having liberty as an ideal of the nation 以自由为理想　
dedicated to: devoted to 献身于　
proposition : statement; assertion 主张；信条　
that all men are created equal: that all men are born equal, one of the self-evident truths
mentioned in the Declaration of Independence 美国独立宣言明白揭示的真理：人类生而平等
endure :exist; last 存续　
a portion of that field: a part of that battlefield 那个战场的一部分　
final resting-place: burial-place; cemetery 葬地；墓地　
in a larger sense: broadly speaking 从广义上说　
consecrate : set apart as sacred 奉为神圣　
hallow : regard as holy 尊为神圣　
detract : reduce in degree 减损　
thus far: to this extent 到如此地步　
gave the last full measure of devotion: gave the last, largest extent of devoutness 鞠躬尽瘁　
perish : be destroyed or ruined 毁灭