4.Gettysburg Adress

4.林肯葛底斯堡演讲

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty,

八十七年以前，我们的祖先在这大陆上建立了一个国家，它孕育于自由，

and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

并且献身给一种理念，即所有人都是生来平等的。

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

当前，我们正在从事一次伟大的内战，我们在考验，究竟这个国家，或任何一个有这种主张和这种信仰的国家，是否能长久存在。

We are met on a great battle-field of that war.

我们在那次战争的一个伟大的战场上集会。

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.

我们来到这里，奉献那个战场上的一部分土地，作为在此地为那个国家的生存而牺牲了自己生命的人的永久眠息之所。

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

我们这样做，是十分合情合理的。

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground.

可是，就更深一层意义而言，我们是无从奉献这片土地的--无从使它成为圣地--也不能把它变为人们景仰之所。