While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children.
当合众国长久地延续下去时,对我们和我们的孩子而言,在我们眼前展现的是激动人心的美好前景。
Beyond that, I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise.
放眼未来,我致力的不是透过那层帷幕。惟愿在我们这一代,至少幕布不会拉起来。
God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind.
在我看来,绝不会将后面隐藏的东西大白于天下。
When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven,
最终,当我凝神注视时,太阳已经失去光辉,
may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union;
但愿我看到的不是它照耀昔日辉煌的合众国那破碎和不名誉的碎片,
on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood.
不是被割裂的、不和谐和卷入冲突的合众国,不是出租给国民公敌或浸透了兄弟鲜血的国土。
Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Republic,
让他们衰弱和游移的目光或多或少地停留在共和国那非常漂亮的旗帜上吧,
now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original luster,
现在这面旗帜在世界各地已经为人所知,受到尊敬,而且还将继续高扬下去,它所到之处战无不克,战利品无数,
not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star obscured — bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as,
星条旗上没有一道条纹斑驳或者受到玷污,没有一颗星暗淡无光——强调的是它不会受到如此卑鄙的质问的座右铭,
What is all this worth? nor those other words of delusion and folly, Liberty first, and Union afterwards,
所有这一切意义何在?不是其他带有欺骗性和愚蠢的箴言,先有自由,才有合众国,
but everywhere spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds,
但是闪耀着光辉的这几个字传遍每个地方,
as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens,
在海上、在陆地上飘扬,还在整个苍穹下的每一阵风中,
that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart — Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!
至于其他观点,对于每一个真正的美国良心来说都是珍贵的——自由和联邦,现在和将来,结成一体不分离!