评论
打印
Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts
对比研究格兰特和李
Bruce Catton
布鲁斯·卡顿
When Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met in the parlor of a modest house at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, to work out the terms for the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, a great chapter in American life came to a close, and a great new chapter began.
1865年4月9日，尤利西斯·辛普森·格兰特和罗伯特·爱德华·李在弗吉尼亚阿波马托克斯的一间普通的会客厅里会面，并商议李的北弗吉尼亚军队投降的条件，这意味着在美国历史上一个伟大的篇章宣告结束，进而一个新的伟大篇章拉开了序幕。
These men were bringing the Civil War to its virtual finish. To be sure, other armies had yet to surrender, and for a few days the fugitive Confederate government would struggle desperately and vainly, trying to find some way to go on living now that its chief support was gone. But in effect it was all over when Grant and Lee signed the papers. And the little room where they wrote out the terms was the scene of one of the poignant, dramatic contrasts in American history.
这两个人最终将美国内战画上了句号。诚然还有一些军队在负隅顽抗，在接下来的一段日子里，逃亡的联邦政府还会作最后的徒劳挣扎，企图在失去主力部队之后寻找再生力量。事实上格兰特和李在签署文件时一切就已经宣告结束了。他们签订条款的那个小房间却成了美国历史上令人动容，极具反差、极富戏剧性的场所之一。
They were two strong men, these oddly different generals, and they represented the strengths of two conflicting currents that, through them, had come into final collision.
他们是两位强人，这两位迥然不同的将军代表立场相左的两股势力，通过他们这两股势力进行了最后一次交锋。
Back of Robert E. Lee was the notion that the old aristocratic concept might somehow survive and be dominant in American life.
罗伯特·爱德华·李代表的观点认为，古老的贵族观念可以通过某种方式存活下来，并在美国社会中占统治地位。
