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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
麦克阿瑟:责任、荣誉、国家(MacArthur:Duty, Honor, Country)
道格拉斯·麦克阿瑟(Douglas MacArthur),美国陆军五星上将。出生于阿肯色州小石城的军人世家。1899年中学毕业后考入西点军校,1903年以名列第一的优异成绩毕业,到工程兵部队任职,并赴菲律宾执勤。麦克阿瑟有过50年的军事实践经验,被美国国民称之为“一代老兵”,而其自身的又曾是“美国最年轻的准将、西点军校最年轻的校长、美国陆军历史上最年轻的陆军参谋长”,凭借精妙的军事谋略和敢战敢胜的胆略,麦克阿瑟堪称美国战争史上的奇才。
这是麦克阿瑟将军的一篇著名演讲,是他一生中最后一次也是最感人的一次演讲,1962年5月,他应邀来到他的母校西点军校,接受军校的最高奖励——西尔维纳斯·塞耶荣誉勋章。他检阅了学员队,和他们共进午餐。
我的生命已近黄昏,暮色已经降临,我昔日的风采和荣誉已经消失。它们随着对昔日事业的憧憬,带着那余晖消失了。昔日的记忆奇妙而美好,浸透了眼泪和昨日微笑的安慰和抚爱。我尽力但徒然地倾听,渴望听到军号吹奏起床导对那微弱而迷人的旋律,以及远处战鼓急促敲击的动人节奏。我在梦幻中依稀又听到了大炮在轰鸣,又听到了滑膛枪在鸣放,又听到了战场上那陌生、哀愁的呻吟。
The shadows are lengthening1 for me. The twilight2 is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint3. They have gone glimmering4 through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous5 beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed6 and caressed7 by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles8 blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle9 of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.
然而,晚年的回忆经常将我带回到西点军校。我的耳旁回响着,反复回响着:责任,荣誉,国家。今天是我同你们进行的最后一次点名。但我愿你们知道,当我到达彼岸时,我最后想的是学员队,学员队,还是学员队。
But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country. Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps10, and The Corps, and The Corps.
演讲全文:General Douglas MacArthur -- Thayer Award Address
General Westmoreland, General Grove11, distinguished12 guests, and gentlemen of the Corps!
As I was leaving the hotel this morning, a doorman asked me, "Where are you bound for, General?" And when I replied, "West Point," he remarked, "Beautiful place. Have you ever been there before?"
No human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this [Thayer Award]. Coming from a profession I have served so long, and a people I have loved so well, it fills me with an emotion I cannot express. But this award is not intended primarily to honor a personality, but to symbolize13 a great moral code -- the code of conduct and chivalry14 of those who guard this beloved land of culture and ancient descent. That is the animation15 of this medallion. For all eyes and for all time, it is an expression of the ethics16 of the American soldier. That I should be integrated in this way with so noble an ideal arouses a sense of pride and yet of humility17 which will be with me always: Duty, Honor, Country.
Those three hallowed words reverently18 dictate19 what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain20 faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.
Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence21 of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance22 of metaphor23 to tell you all that they mean. The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant24 phrase. Every pedant25, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker26, and I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely28 different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule29.
But these are some of the things they do. They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians30 of the nation's defense31. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid. They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble32 and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm but to have compassion33 on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future yet never neglect the past; to be serious yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity34 of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness35 of true strength. They give you a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor36 of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.
And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brave? Are they capable of victory? Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man-at-arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many, many years ago, and has never changed. I regarded him then as I regard him now -- as one of the world's noblest figures, not only as one of the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless37. His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty38, he gave all that mortality can give.
He needs no eulogy39 from me or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast. But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty40 in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration41 I cannot put into words. He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism42. He belongs to posterity43 as the instructor44 of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues45 and by his achievements. In 20 campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude46, that patriotic47 self-abnegation, and that invincible48 determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people. From one end of the world to the other he has drained deep the chalice49 of courage.
As I listened to those songs [of the glee club], in memory's eye I could see those staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs, on many a weary march from dripping dusk to drizzling50 dawn, slogging ankle-deep through the mire51 of shell-shocked roads, to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, to the judgment52 seat of God.
I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death.
They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory.
Always, for them: Duty, Honor, Country; always their blood and sweat and tears, as we sought the way and the light and the truth.
And 20 years after, on the other side of the globe, again the filth53 of murky54 foxholes55, the stench of ghostly trenches56, the slime of dripping dugouts; those boiling suns of relentless57 heat, those torrential rains of devastating58 storms; the loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails; the bitterness of long separation from those they loved and cherished; the deadly pestilence59 of tropical disease; the horror of stricken areas of war; their resolute60 and determined61 defense, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and decisive victory -- always victory. Always through the bloody62 haze63 of their last reverberating64 shot, the vision of gaunt, ghastly men reverently following your password of: Duty, Honor, Country.
The code which those words perpetuate65 embraces the highest moral laws and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated66 for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong.
The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training -- sacrifice.
In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker27 gave when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute67 instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him.
However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.
You now face a new world -- a world of change. The thrust into outer space of the satellite, spheres, and missiles mark the beginning of another epoch68 in the long story of mankind. In the five or more billions of years the scientists tell us it has taken to form the earth, in the three or more billion years of development of the human race, there has never been a more abrupt69 or staggering evolution. We deal now not with things of this world alone, but with the illimitable distances and as yet unfathomed mysteries of the universe. We are reaching out for a new and boundless70 frontier.
We speak in strange terms: of harnessing the cosmic energy; of making winds and tides work for us; of creating unheard synthetic71 materials to supplement or even replace our old standard basics; to purify sea water for our drink; of mining ocean floors for new fields of wealth and food; of disease preventatives to expand life into the hundreds of years; of controlling the weather for a more equitable72 distribution of heat and cold, of rain and shine; of space ships to the moon; of the primary target in war, no longer limited to the armed forces of an enemy, but instead to include his civil populations; of ultimate conflict between a united human race and the sinister73 forces of some other planetary galaxy74; of such dreams and fantasies as to make life the most exciting of all time.
And through all this welter of change and development, your mission remains75 fixed76, determined, inviolable: it is to win our wars.
Everything else in your professional career is but corollary to this vital dedication77. All other public purposes, all other public projects, all other public needs, great or small, will find others for their accomplishment78. But you are the ones who are trained to fight. Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory; that if you lose, the nation will be destroyed; that the very obsession79 of your public service must be: Duty, Honor, Country.
Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's minds; but serene80, calm, aloof81, you stand as the Nation's war-guardian, as its lifeguard from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiator in the arena82 of battle. For a century and a half you have defended, guarded, and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice.
Let civilian83 voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government; whether our strength is being sapped by deficit84 financing, indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty85, by power groups grown too arrogant86, by politics grown too corrupt87, by crime grown too rampant88, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as thorough and complete as they should be. These great national problems are not for your professional participation89 or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a ten-fold beacon90 in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.
You are the leaven91 which binds92 together the entire fabric93 of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The Long Gray Line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.
This does not mean that you are war mongers.
On the contrary, the soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.
But always in our ears ring the ominous94 words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war."
The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.
But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point.
Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.
Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.
I bid you farewell.
点击收听单词发音
1 lengthening | |
(时间或空间)延长,伸长( lengthen的现在分词 ); 加长 | |
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3 tint | |
n.淡色,浅色;染发剂;vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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4 glimmering | |
n.微光,隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光,发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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5 wondrous | |
adj.令人惊奇的,奇妙的;adv.惊人地;异乎寻常地;令人惊叹地 | |
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6 coaxed | |
v.哄,用好话劝说( coax的过去式和过去分词 );巧言骗取;哄劝,劝诱 | |
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爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8 bugles | |
妙脆角,一种类似薯片但做成尖角或喇叭状的零食; 号角( bugle的名词复数 ); 喇叭; 匍匐筋骨草; (装饰女服用的)柱状玻璃(或塑料)小珠 | |
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9 rattle | |
v.飞奔,碰响;激怒;n.碰撞声;拨浪鼓 | |
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10 corps | |
n.(通信等兵种的)部队;(同类作的)一组 | |
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14 chivalry | |
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18 reverently | |
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23 metaphor | |
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24 flamboyant | |
adj.火焰般的,华丽的,炫耀的 | |
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25 pedant | |
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26 troublemaker | |
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28 entirely | |
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29 ridicule | |
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30 custodians | |
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31 defense | |
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32 humble | |
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33 compassion | |
n.同情,怜悯 | |
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34 simplicity | |
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35 meekness | |
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36 vigor | |
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37 stainless | |
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38 loyalty | |
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39 eulogy | |
n.颂词;颂扬 | |
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40 modesty | |
n.谦逊,虚心,端庄,稳重,羞怯,朴素 | |
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41 admiration | |
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42 patriotism | |
n.爱国精神,爱国心,爱国主义 | |
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43 posterity | |
n.后裔,子孙,后代 | |
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44 instructor | |
n.指导者,教员,教练 | |
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45 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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46 fortitude | |
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47 patriotic | |
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48 invincible | |
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49 chalice | |
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52 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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n.散兵坑( foxhole的名词复数 ) | |
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57 relentless | |
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59 pestilence | |
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61 determined | |
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62 bloody | |
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n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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64 reverberating | |
回响,回荡( reverberate的现在分词 ); 使反响,使回荡,使反射 | |
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65 perpetuate | |
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67 brute | |
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68 epoch | |
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69 abrupt | |
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70 boundless | |
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71 synthetic | |
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72 equitable | |
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73 sinister | |
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74 galaxy | |
n.星系;银河系;一群(杰出或著名的人物) | |
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n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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76 fixed | |
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77 dedication | |
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78 accomplishment | |
n.完成,成就,(pl.)造诣,技能 | |
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79 obsession | |
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81 aloof | |
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82 arena | |
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83 civilian | |
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84 deficit | |
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86 arrogant | |
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87 corrupt | |
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88 rampant | |
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89 participation | |
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90 beacon | |
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91 leaven | |
v.使发酵;n.酵母;影响 | |
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92 binds | |
v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 );装订;捆绑;(用长布条)缠绕 | |
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93 fabric | |
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织 | |
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94 ominous | |
adj.不祥的,不吉的,预兆的,预示的 | |
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