书城英文图书那些激励你前行的声音
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第10章 告别过去,重新开始(3)

There are more bobbies on the beat! But crime isnot a matter of the police alone. It never was. Policeneeds support from all of us. Indeed, the enemies ofthe British bobby are the enemies of liberty itself. Thepolice served the rule of law impartially. They needour support. They deserve our trust.

And theres one thing that only government canand must do. It must secure the countrys defence,and in a nuclear age, that means we must have anuclear deterrent. Winston Churchill, who knew somuch about the dangers of weakness in appeasement,warned us thirty-five years ago. He said, be carefulabove all things, not to let go of the atomic weaponuntil you are sure and more than sure that othermeans of preserving peace are in your hands. For agovernment to surrender our nuclear deterrent will be an unprecedented act of folly that will putthe nation in jeopardy. The nuclear deterrent haspreserved peace in Europe for forty years.

诚然!我们雄心勃勃,但目标并非遥不可及。让我们确信,我们必将使之近在身边、得以实现。

的确,本届政府增加了警员编制,并将继续增加,包括巡警数量。然而,打击犯罪从来都不只是警务部门的责任,他们需要公众的支持。毫无疑问,英国警察的敌人就是自由的敌人。警务人员秉公执法、大公无私,他们需要我们支持,他们值得我们信赖。

政府所能做且必须做的事情只有一件,即确保国防安全。在核武器时代,这意味我们必须拥有核威慑力量。温斯顿·丘吉尔深谙绥靖政策的弊端与危害,早在35年前就曾告诫我们。他说,“要事事谨慎,除非确保并绝对确保手中握有其他维和的方法,否则绝不弃核。”作为政府,放弃核威慑将是空前的愚行,并将使国家陷于危难。这一威慑力量已经使欧洲和平维持了40年之久。

And I believe peace is the heart of what wein Britain ask our government to safeguard. Peacein industry has enabled people to honor livingwithout fear of intimidation or been called out onstrike against their will and without a ballot. Peaceof mind that comes with knowing that this willcontinue to be a safe country, a good place for usto live and for our children to grow up in. Peacethat comes from being independent and being ableto run your life and spend your own money inyour own way, above all, the peace of a countrythat is properly defended against any adversary,thats what this government and this people inpartnership have been building for the past eightyears. Yet all of it will vanish unless we preservethe economic strength, the strong defence andspirit of enterprise that have made us prosperousat home and respected throughout the world. It isthat which is at issue on Thursday. Of course, wefeel passionately about it because for us it is aboutthe very heart and soul of Britain.

我相信,扞卫和平是英国人民要求政府工作的核心任务。工业和平维护人生尊严,免受威言恫吓之忧与强迫罢工选举之苦。心境和平意指知晓无论对人民生活还是儿童成长,我们都将继续作为一个安全的国度和良好的居所而存在。和平来自独立,来自按自己的方式生活消费。总之,维护国家和平就要彻底防御外敌,这也正是本届政府与人民在过去8年同心同德所取得的成就。然而,只有继续保持经济实力、巩固国防力量、发扬进取精神,这些成就才不会付诸东流,正是它们使我们赢得了国内的繁荣和世界的尊重。这也是本周四即将探讨的话题。的确,对这一话题我们深有感慨,因为它关乎英国真正的精神与灵魂。

责任、荣誉、国家

Duty, Honor, Country

[道格拉斯·麦克阿瑟 / Douglas MacArthur]

As I was leaving the hotel this morning, adoorman asked me, “Where are you bound for,General?” And when I replied, “West Point,”he remarked, “Beautiful place. Have you everbeen there before?”

今天早晨,当我走出旅馆时,看门人问道:“将军,您上哪去?”听说我要去西点军校,他说:“那是个好地方,您从前去过吗?”

No human being could fail to be deeplymoved by such a tribute as this (ThayerAward). Coming from a profession I haveserved so long, and a people I have lovedso well, it fills me with an emotion I cannotexpress. But this award is not intendedprimarily to honor a personality, but tosymbolize a great moral code - the code ofconduct and chivalry of those who guard thisbeloved land of culture and ancient descent. That is the animation of this medallion. For alleyes and for all time, it is an expression of theethics of the American soldier. That I shouldbe integrated in this way with so noble an idealarouses a sense of pride and yet of humilitywhich will be with me always.

这样的荣誉没有人不会深受感动。长期以来,我从事这个职业,又如此热爱这个民族,能获得这样的荣誉简直使我无法表达我的感情。然而,这种奖赏主要并不意味着对个人的尊崇,而是象征一个伟大的道德准则——扞卫这块可爱土地上的文化与古老传统的那些人的行为与品质的准则。这就是这个大奖章的意义。无论现在还是将来,它都是美国军人道德标准的一种体现。我一定要遵循这个标准,结合崇高的理想,唤起自豪感,同时始终保持谦虚。

Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed wordsreverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. Theyare your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regainfaith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hopebecomes forlorn.

责任、荣誉、国家。这三个神圣的口号,庄严地指出你们要做的、你们能做的、你们将做的。这是你们振作的起点,当勇气快消失的时候,由此建立起勇气;当信心快失去的时候,由此恢复起信心;当希望渺茫的时候,由此点燃起希望。

As I listened to those songs , in memorys eye I could see those staggeringcolumns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs, on many a weary marchfrom dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle-deep through the mire of shell-shocked roads, to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge andmud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, tothe judgment seat of God.

每当我听着那些纪念的歌声,我眼中的记忆就浮现,第一次大战中那些蹒跚的行列,背着潮湿的背包,疲惫地跋涉长途,从落雨的黄昏到细雨的黎明,在弹痕斑斑、泥淖四布的道路上脚踝被淹没;凄凉地准备攻击,嘴唇发青,满身泥泞,在风雨中颤抖着,奔向目标,而就有许多人,到上帝的座下接受审判去了。

I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of theirdeath. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and ontheir lips the hope that we would go on to victory. Always, for them: Duty, Honor,Country; always their blood and sweat and tears, as we sought the way and the lightand the truth.

我不知他们生时的尊严,但我深知他们死时的荣耀。他们毫不迟疑地死去,毫不抱怨地死去,满怀信心地死去,口角上仍挂着希望,希望我们继续争取到胜利。他们一直信奉的是:责任、荣誉、国家。总是他们的血汗泪流,为我们开启了道路与光明。

This does not mean that you are warmongers.

这并不是说你们都是好战之徒。

On the contrary, the soldier, above all otherpeople, prays for peace, for he must suffer andbear the deepest wounds and scars of war.

正好相反,军人比别人更渴望和平,因为他们必须承受战争的最深创伤与疤痕。

But always in our ears ring the ominouswords of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers:“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

我们的耳际常会响起圣哲柏拉图的名言:“只有死者曾经看到战争的结局。”

The shadows are lengthening for me. Thetwilight is here. My days of old have vanished,tone and tint. They have gone glimmeringthrough the dreams of things that were. Theirmemory is one of wondrous beauty, watered bytears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles ofyesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears,for the witching melody of faint bugles blowingreveille, of far drums beating the long roll. Inmy dreams I hear again the crash of guns, therattle of musketry, and the strange, mournfulmutter of the battlefield.