Thoughts-on-Reclaiming-the-American-Dream-重申美国梦-中英文对照.pdfVIP

Thoughts-on-Reclaiming-the- American-Dream- 重申美国梦- 中英文对照 Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream 重申美国梦 “We hold theses truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” “我们认为这些事实是不言自明的，所有人生来都是平等的，他们被造物主赋 予了不可剥夺的权力，分别是生存、自由和追求幸福的权力。” Those simple words are our starting point as Americans; they describe not only the foundation of our government but the substance of our common creed. Not every American may be able to recite them; few, if asked, could trace the genesis of the Declaration of Independence to its roots in eighteenth-century liberal and republican thought. But the essential idea behind the Declaration—that we are born into this world free, all of us; that each of us arrives with a bundle of rights that can’t be taken away by any person or any state without just cause; that through our own agency we can, and must, make of our lives what we will—is one that every American　understands. It orients us, sets our course, each and every day. 这些简洁的言语表达了美国人的基本权利，它们不仅描述了我们政府建立的基 础，还说明了我们共同信念的实质。不是每一个美国人能够背诵下这些句子， 如果问起，我相信只有少许人能够理解当初通过《独立宣言》的原因，那扎根 于 18 世纪自由和共和主义思想。但是，《宣言》表达的基本概念是，我们所有 人降生到这个世界上都是自由的；除了公正的理由，没有任何人或任何国家可 以剥夺我们每个人与生俱来的众多权利；我们通过自己的行为能够而且应当使 我们的生活达到预期水平，这是每个美国人都了解的。每天，这个信念为我们 指引方向，设定我们的人生路线。 Indeed, the value of individual freedom is so deeply ingrained in us that we tend to take it for granted. It is easy to forget that at the time of our nation’s founding this idea was entirely radical in its implications, as radical as Martin Luther’s posting on the church door. It is an idea that some portion of the world still rejects—and for which an even larger portion of humanity finds scant evidence in their daily lives. 的确，个人的自由价值观如此根深蒂固地扎根于我们心中，我们往往认为这是 理所当然的。很容易忽视曾几何时，在我们的国家创造这个理念时，它代表的 意义是极度激进的，就像马丁.路德（Martin Luther，16 世纪欧洲宗教改革倡 导者，新教路德宗创始人）在教堂门上贴出对神学的