葛底斯堡(林肯演讲)

The Gettysburg Address

It is one of the most important, and most beautiful, speeches ever given in the English language. I'm Steve Ember with Bob Doughty.

President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is our report this week on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA.

We begin in the summer of eighteen-sixty-three in Gettysburg, a little town in the state of Pennsylvania. Gettysburg was a small farming and market town back then.

On July first, second and third, two huge armies clashed in Gettysburg. They fought in one of the most important battles of the American Civil War. Because of that battle, the little market town of Gettysburg became an extremely important part of American history.

General Robert E. Lee led the Southern army of the Confederate states into Pennsylvania. He went into the North in hopes of winning a major victory -- a victory that might help the Confederate cause.

Southern states, where slavery was legal, were trying to form their own country. They wanted the right to govern themselves. Northern states did not want to let them leave the Union.

General George Gordon Mead's Union Army was following the Confederates. The two armies met at Gettysburg in the fierce heat of summer in July of eighteen-sixty-three.

Little Round Top, Cemetery Ridge, the Devil's Den, Pickett's Charge. American history books are filled with the names of places in and around Gettysburg where the soldiers fought.

These are places where thousands of men died defending the idea of a United States of America.

General Lee and the Confederate Army lost the great battle. They were forced to return to the South. Many more battles would be fought during the Civil War. Some were just as terrible as the one at Gettysburg. Yet few are remembered so well.

Gettysburg was the largest battle ever fought on the North American continent. And it was the subject of a speech given five months later by the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.

八十七年前，我们的父辈使一个新的国家诞生在这片大陆上，这个国家孕育于自由之中，并致力于人生而平等的信念。

现在我们正在进行一场伟大的内战，这场战争检验我们的国家或任何一个像我们这样孕育并执著追求这种主张的国家是否能够长久存在。我们聚集在这场战争中的一个伟大的战场上，有些人在这里为了这个国家的生存而牺牲了自己的生命，我们此时将这个战场上的一块土地奉献给他们，作为他们的最终安息之所。我们这样做是完全合适和正确的。

然而，从更广阔的意义上来说，我们无法奉献这片土地--我们无法使之神圣--我们也无法使之光荣。是那些勇敢的人，无论活着的还是死了的，是那些曾在这里战斗的人，使它变得神圣伟大，这远非我们微薄的力量所能予以增减的。这个世界不会注意也不会长时间记得我们在这里说的话，但是它永远也不会忘记勇士们在这里的业绩。对于我们这些活着的人来说，真正要做的是献身于勇士们未竟的事业。他们曾在这里战斗，并英勇地将这项事业推向前进。我们要做的是献身于留在我们面前的伟大的使命--他们已光荣牺牲，而我们会更加献身于他们为之付出一切的事业--我们在这里坚定地承诺烈士的鲜血绝不能白流--这个国家，在上帝的庇佑下，将会获得一次自由的新生--这个民有、民治、民享的政府一定会与世长存。

On November second of eighteen-sixty-three, David Wills of Gettysburg wrote a letter to President Abraham Lincoln. In the letter, Wills explained that the bodies of soldiers killed in the great battle had been moved to a special area and buried.

He invited President Lincoln to attend ceremonies to honor the soldiers who had died defending the Union. Wills also explained that the main speaker that day would be Mr. Edward Everett. He was the most famous speaker in the United States at that time.

President Lincoln accepted the invitation. History experts say he may have done this for several reasons. President Lincoln may have decided that it was a good time to honor all those who had given their lives in the Civil War. He may also have seen the ceremony as a chance to say how important the war was. To him, it was important not just to save the union of states, but also to establish freedom and equality under the law.

President Lincoln worked on the speech for some time. He wrote it himself, on White House paper. He arrived in Gettysburg by train the day before the ceremony. David Wills had invited the president to stay the night in his home.

President Lincoln, Edward Everett and David Wills left the house for the new burial place the next morning. For a few moments, let us imagine that this is November nineteenth, eighteen-sixty-three. The weather is cool. There are clouds in the sky.