Quartz 4

Gettysburg Address

4 min read

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1nb411v7y6

Gettysburg Address──助你快速了解与背诵葛底斯堡演说 - 知乎
林肯的葛底斯堡演讲及其译文赏析 - 知乎 (zhihu.com)
关于葛底斯堡演讲的词法问题 - 柯帕斯英语网

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated1 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 endure2. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

give your life

also: lay down your life

to be willing to die in order to defend or support someone or something:

They were ready to give their lives for their country.
I love him so much I would give my life for him.
I know you would have given your life to save hers.
We were prepared to lay down our lives for the cause.
Most parents would lay down their lives for their children.

Link to original

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that3 that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense4, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above5 our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note6, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for7 us the living, rather8, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced9. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us: that from these honored dead we take increased10 devotion to that cause11 for which they gave the last full measure12 of devotion; that we here highly resolve13 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.

Footnotes

  1. working hard at sth because it is very important to you ↩

  2. to continue to exist for a long time ↩

  3. = so that 目的状语从句 ↩

  4. a way in which something can be true or real 意义，含义，角度: ↩

  5. preposition If you value one person or thing above any other, you value them more or consider that they are more important. 比…更重要；胜过；优于；//…his tendency to put the team above everything… 他把这个团队看得比什么都重要的倾向 I want to be honest, honest above everything else. 我想要做到诚实，一切以诚实为上。 ↩

  6. notice ↩

  7. used to show who can or should do sth （表示谁可以或应该做某事）It’s not for me to say why he left. 由我说出他离开的原因不合适。 ↩

  8. rather作为副词，可以修饰形容词或副词，表示程度。也可以修饰动词，表示和前句的否定句形成对比，强调本句动词的肯定性，可以翻译成“相反、而”。例如 Our aim was not to punish the rich, but rather to bring justice to the poor. （我们的目的不是要惩罚富人，而是要将公正带给穷人。） 因此本句中rather修饰不定式复合结构，强调不定式表示的这件事正是我们能够以及应该做的事情，与前句的我们不可能使这片土地更加神圣化形成对比。rather翻译成“而”：而我们所能够做也应该做的是：我们活着的人要献身于。。。 ↩

  9. to help sth to succeed ↩

  10. increased adjective increased demand 增加的需求 ↩

  11. something (such as an organization, belief, idea, or goal) that a group or people support or fight for（奋斗的）目标，事业 ↩

  12. the whole of sth or less of sth than you expect or should have 足量；不足量 We experienced the full measure of their hospitality. The concert only lasted an hour, so we felt we were getting short measure. ↩

  13. to make a firm decision to do sth 决心；决定 ↩

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