The Gettysburg Address
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 dedicated can long endure. We are met on the battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final-resting place for those who gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether 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, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be 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 the nation shall have a new birth of freedom, that the government of the people by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
八十七年前，我们先辈在这个大陆上创立了一个新国家，它孕育于自由之中，奉行一切人生来平等的原则。
我们正从事一场伟大的内战，以考验这个国家，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。我们在这场战争中的一个伟大战场上集会。烈士们为使这个国家能够生存下去而献出了自己的生命，我们来到这里，是要把这个战场的一部分奉献给他们作为最后安息之所。我们这样做是完全应该而且非常恰当的。
但是，从更广泛的意义上说，这块土地我们不能够奉献，不能够圣化，不能够神化。那些曾在这里战斗过的勇士们，活着的和去世的，已经把这块土地圣化了，这远不是我们微薄的力量所能增减的。我们今天在这里所说的话，全世界不大会注意，也不会长久地记住，但勇士们在这里所做过的事，全世界却永远不会忘记。毋宁说，倒是我们这些还活着的人，应该在这里把自己奉献于勇士们已经如此崇高地向前推进但尚未完成的事业。倒是我们应该在这里把自已奉献于仍然留在我们面前的伟大任务我们要从这些光荣的死者身上吸取更多的献身精神，来完成他们已经完全彻底为之献身的事业；我们要在这里下定最大的决心，不让这些死者白白牺牲；我们要使国家在上帝福佑下自由的新生，要使这个民有、民治、民享的政府永世长存。 |