The Gettysburg Address

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.

We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

fourscore 名词,形容词 八十。
consecrate 及物动词 奉献，献祭。

hallow 及物动词 把…视为神圣；尊敬；把…献给神。
nobly 副词 宏伟，壮丽。
in vain 无益地，徒然
perish 不及物动词 灭亡；消灭，死去。

亚伯拉•汉林肯   

葛登斯堡演说

八十七年前，我们的前辈在这块土地上建立了一个基于拥有自由构想的，一个信奉人人平等的新的国家。现在我们正投身于一场巨大的内战中，为的是要检验这个国家，或任何有同样构想的国家，能否持久地存在。
我们今天在这内战的巨大战场上相聚，要拿出一部分土地，給那些为这个国家的长存而付出了生命的人，作为他們的安息之地。这是应该的。但从较大的意义上说，我们实在不能献出，不能奉献----这块土地，也不能把它作为圣地。那些曾经在这勇敢奋战的人，或生或死；而他们已做出的奉献，远远地超过我们所能增加或減少的微不足道的能力。
世界不会特別留意，也不会长久记住我们在这所说的一切，但永远不会忘记那些勇敢的人们在这所做过的一切。我们活着的人要做的，是继续他们尚未完成的工作，尽管他们已取得了辉煌的业绩。
我们今天在这，不为其它，而是要表达我们对他们所留下来的伟大事业做出自己的贡献----在值得人们尊敬的牺牲者身上，我们要增强自己的使命感，达到毫无保留的奉献的目的----我们站起来表決，这些牺牲者将不会白白地牺牲----这个国家，在上帝之下，将会有一个新生的自由----一个属于人民的政府，为人民而设的政府，将永远不会在地球上消失。

The Gettysburg Address by President Lincoln mp3