Abraham Lincoln：The Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln，1863
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.
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.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate－we can not consecrate－we can not 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.
亚拉伯罕·林肯：葛底斯堡演说
八十七年以前，我們的祖先在這塊大陸上創立了一個孕育於自由的新國家。他們主張人人生而平等，並為此而獻身。現在我們正進行一場偉大的內戰，這是一場檢驗這一國家或者任何一個像我們這樣孕育 於自由並信守其主張的國家是否能長久存在的戰爭。我們聚集在這場戰爭中的一個偉大戰場上，將這個戰場上的一塊土地奉獻給那些在此地為了這個國家的生存而犧牲了自己生命的人，作為他們的最終安息之所。我們這樣做是完全適當和正確的。
可是，從更廣的意義上說，我們並不能奉獻這塊土地──我們不能使之神聖──我們也不能使之光榮。因為那些在此地奮戰過的勇士們，不論是還活著的或是已死去的，已經使這塊土地神聖了，遠非我們微薄的力量所能予以增減的。世人將不大會注意，更不會長久記住我們在這裏所說的話，然而，他們將永遠不會忘記這些勇士們在這裏所做的事。相反地，我們活著的人，應該獻身 於勇士們未竟的工作，那些曾在此地戰鬥過的人們已經把這項工作英勇地向前推進了。我們應該獻身於留在我們面前的偉大任務──由於他們的光榮犧牲，我們會更加獻身於他們為之奉獻了最後一切的事業──我們要下定決心使那些死去的人不致白白犧牲──我們要使這個國家在上帝的庇佑下，獲得自由的新生──我們要使這個民有、民治、民享的政府不致從地球上消失。