书城励志世界上最伟大的演说辞
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第21章 在殉国将士葬礼上的演说辞 (2)

If we turn to our military policy, there also we differ from our antagonists. We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although the eyes of any enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native spirit of our citizens; while in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger. In proof of this it may be noticed that the Lacedaemonians do not invade our country alone, but bring with them all their confederates; while we Athenians advance unsupported into the territory of a neighbor, and fighting upon a foreign soil usually vanquish with ease men who are defending their homes. Our united force was never yet encountered by any enemy, because we have at once to attend to our marine and to dispatch our citizens by land upon a hundred different services; so that, wherever they engage with some such fraction of our strength, a success against a detachment is magnified into a victory over the nation, and a defeat into a reverse suffered at the hands of the entire people. And yet if with habits not of labor but of ease, and courage not of art but of nature we are still willing to encounter danger we have the double advantage of escaping the experience of hardships in anticipation and of facing them in the hour of need as fearlessly as those who are never free from them.

参考译文

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我们没有抄袭邻国的政治制度。我们不是模仿者,相反,我们是别人的楷模。我们的政府造福于大多数人,而不是为少数人谋利,这就是人们称其为民主政府的原因。解决私人争执时,每个人在法律上是平等的;从社会地位来看,在公众事务中获得晋升的基础是能力而不是虚名,既不能让阶级地位贬低人们的价值,也不能让贫困阻挡人们前进的道路;有能力为国家服务的人,不应该因地位卑微而受妨碍。政府生活中能享受的自由,也同样适用于日常生活。我们非但不为嫉妒而相互监视,也不会因邻居随心所欲而发怒;甚至不会纵容自己面露不快,尽管这种脸色不会造成实在的损伤,却着实令人讨厌。但是这种个人交往中的随和,并不会使我们成为无法无天的公民。正是害怕这种情况的发生,反而让我们有了法律的最高保障。它教导我们服从执法机构和法律,尤其是关于保护受害人的法律,不管这些法律是否确实载入了法典。即使这些法律没有明文规定,但你一旦触犯,就将成为公认的耻辱。

另外,为了让大脑从繁忙的事务中恢复清醒,我们也提出了许多方法。娱乐活动和祭祀典礼贯穿全年始终,而幽雅的住所让我们的日常生活充满快乐,帮助我们驱散所有烦忧。我们庞大的城市吸引世界各地的产品来到我们的港口,使得我们雅典人享受别国的产品像享受自己的产品那样熟悉。

从军事政策来看,我们和对手也有不同。尽管敌人的窥探有时会因我们的开放而受益,但我们仍然把城市的大门向世界敞开,从不拒绝外国人的参观和学习;与政策和制度相比,我们更愿意信赖公民的天性;从教育来看,我们的对手从摇篮开始就接受残酷的纪律教育,而我们雅典人自由地生活,却同样随时可以接受任何真正危机的挑战。斯巴达人从来不敢单独来侵犯我们国家,每次总是带领他们所有的同盟者一起来;而我们雅典人进入邻国的领土时从来都是单枪匹马,却往往能够轻而易举地打败那些保家卫国的人们。这些事实就是证据。我们从来不用联合武力攻击敌人,因为我们既要组织海上力量,又要在陆地上分派公民执行许多种不同的勤务;因此,敌人打败我们任何一个武装分队,就可以看做打败了整个国家,而相反,如果他们被任何一个分队打败,也就可以说被我们全体人民打败。然而,即使我们惯于安乐而不喜劳苦,即使我们的勇敢来自于天性而非训练而成,我们仍然不惧危难。我们拥有两重优势,既不需要忍受预先的艰苦训练,在需要的时候,又能和那些从未停止训练的人一样英勇无畏。

历史链接

为了争夺希腊的霸权,公元前431年—公元前404年,雅典及其同盟者与以斯巴达为首的伯罗奔尼撒同盟之间发生战争。战争以雅典的失败而告终,斯巴达取代雅典成为希腊诸城邦的霸主。战争给繁荣的古希腊带来了前所未有的破坏,导致战后希腊奴隶制城邦的危机,整个希腊开始由盛转衰,并最终为马其顿所灭。本文是伯里克利在战争初期的第一批雅典牺牲者葬礼上的演说。

Chunks in Use

Match each of the following words with its meaning.

(1) afford a. to get involved in a situation

(2) interfere b. to gain advantage or benefit from something

(3) profit c. to make something more difficult

(4) hinder d. to pay for something

Now a Try

Translate the following sentences into English with the expressions in

the article.

1. 由于你的资料全部丢失,下一步的申请受到了阻碍。

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2. 她嫉妒他的富有。

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3. 她比过去看起来更加美丽优雅。

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4. 目前,军事行动迫在眉睫。

Chunks in Practice

Read this article loudly, and try to recite it.

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