美国语文第六册 第68期:在弗吉尼亚制宪大会上的演讲(3)

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。

　　What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted⁴? 我们还有什么没有穷尽的办法吗？

　　Let us not, I beseech⁵ you, deceive ourselves longer. 没有了。我恳求诸位，不要在欺骗自己了。

　　We have done everything that could be done, to avert⁶ the storm which is now coming on. 为防止暴风雨的到来，我们所能做的一切都做了。

　　We have petitioned; we have remonstrated⁷; we have supplicated⁸; we have prostrated⁹ ourselves at the foot of the throne, 我们已经请愿了；我们已经抗议过了；我们已经在王权的脚下拜倒过了，

　　and implored¹⁰ its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry¹¹ and parliament. 乞求它的干预能够制止政府和国会伸出残暴的手。

　　Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances¹² have produced additional violence and insult; 我们的请愿受到轻蔑；我们的抗议则导致变本加厉的暴力和伤害；

　　our supplications disregarded; and we have been spurned¹³ with contempt from the foot of the throne. 我们的乞求没人理会；我们拜倒在王权脚下得到的结果就是遭到唾弃。

　　In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation¹⁴. 在所有这一切都徒劳无益后，我们仍然抱有和平与和解的希望。

　　There is no longer any room for hope. 现在看来，希望已化为泡影。

　　If we wish to be free; if we mean to preserve inviolate¹⁵ those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending; 唯愿我们渴望自由；唯愿我们本意是维持那些长久以来我们一直为之争取的无法衡量的权利；

　　if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, 唯愿我们的本意不是下贱地放弃我们长久以来一直致力，

　　and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained—we must fight! 以及一直告诫自己绝对不能放弃，直到我们争取的光荣目标获得实现的高尚的斗争——我们必须战斗！

　　I repeat it, we must fight! 我再重复一遍，我们必须战斗！

分享到：