评论
打印
We can turn rivers in their courses, level mountains to the plains.
我们能够使河流改道，能够把高山夷为平原，海洋、陆地和天空都成了我们进行大规模贸易的通衢。
Oceans and land and sky are avenues for our colossal commerce. Disease diminishes and life lengthens.
疾病大为减少，人的寿命正在延长。
Yet the promise of this life is imperiled by the very genius that has made it possible. Nations amass wealth.
但是，这种生活的希望，正是由于使其成为可能的人类创造才能而处于危险之中。各个国家正在聚积财富。
Labor sweats to create—and turns out devices to level not only mountains but also cities.
劳动的汗水创造并生产出来的器械，不仅可以夷平高山，而且也能摧毁城池。
Science seems ready to confer upon us, as its final gift, the power to erase human life from this planet.
科学看来准备送给人类一件最后的礼物，这就是能把人类生活从这个星球抹去的力量。
At such a time in history, we who are free must proclaim anew our faith.
在这样一个历史的时刻，我们既为自由的人，就必须重申我们的信念。
This faith is the abiding creed of our fathers.
这个信念曾是我们先辈奉守的信条，
It is our faith in the deathless dignity of man, governed by eternal moral and natural laws.
也就是关于在永恒道德和自然法则的制约下人类尊严永存的信念。
This faith defines our full view of life.
这个信念确定了我们对生活的全部看法，
It establishes, beyond debate, those gifts of the Creator that are man's inalienable rights, and that make all men equal in His sight.
并且无可辩驳地证实了造物主对人类的赐予——即人类拥有多项不可剥夺的权利，所有人在上帝面前一律平等。
In the light of this equality, we know that the virtues most cherished by free people love of truth, pride of work, devotion to country
我们知道，根据这个平等的原则，自由的人民极为珍视的美德乃是热爱真理、以工作为荣和忠于祖国。
all are treasures equally precious in the lives of the most humble and of the most exalted.
这些不论对最卑贱者还是最高贵者，都是生活中弥足珍贵的宝藏。
The men who mine coal and fire furnaces and balance ledgers and turn lathes and pick cotton and heal the sick and plant corn
那些从事诸如采煤、烧锅炉、理帐、开车床、摘棉花、治疗和种玉米之类工作的人们，
all serve as proudly, and as profitably, for America as the statesmen who draft treaties and the legislators who enact laws.
与草拟条约的政治家和制定法律的立法者一样，都在自豪而又卓有成效地为美国服务。
This faith rules our whole way of life. It decrees that we, the people, elect leaders not to rule but to serve.
这个信念支配着我们的整个生活方式。它要求我们人民选举领导人的目的不是为了让他们统治，而是要他们服务；
It asserts that we have the right to choice of our own work and to the reward of our own toil.
它宣布我们，有权选择自己的工作，有权得到自己劳动的报酬；
It inspires the initiative that makes our productivity the wonder of the world.
它激发我们的首创精神，使我国生产力成为世界一大奇迹；
And it warns that any man who seeks to deny equality among all his brothers betrays the spirit of the free and invites the mockery of the tyrant.
它还告诫我们，任何人如果企图否认其同胞的平等，就等于背叛了自由的精神，必定招致暴君的嘲弄。
