美國語文第六冊 第190期:新英格蘭清教徒先輩的品格(2)
因此，他們將自由看得高于財富、安逸和國家。他們或許喜歡和充分實踐自由賦予的權利，
they forsook houses, and lands, and kindred, their homes, their native soil, and their fathers' graves.
為此他們可以放棄房子、土地、親情、他們的家園，放棄他們的故土和祖先的墳墓。
They left all these; they left England, which, whatever it might have been called, was not to them a land of freedom;
他們拋棄了所有這些，他們離開英格蘭，不論如何號召，對他們而言英格蘭都不是自由的土地。
they launched forth on the pathless ocean, the wide, fathomless ocean, soiled not by the earth beneath, and bounded, all round and above, only by heaven;
他們在無路可走、一望無際和深不見底的大洋上起航，沒有被地下的泥土弄臟，他們內(nèi)心的向往只有上帝知道。
and it seemed to them like that better and sublimer freedom, which their country knew not,
對他們來說，這種向往似乎就像更好和更高尚的自由，而他們的祖國不曉得他們的追求，
but of which they had the conception and image in their hearts;
這個概念和想象只存在于他們心里。
and, after a toilsome and painful voyage, they came to a hard and wintry coast, unfruitful and desolate, but unguarded and boundless;
歷經(jīng)千辛萬苦的遠航后，他們抵達條件艱苦和風雪交加的海岸，他們食不果腹，孤零零地遺世而立，但是這里沒有人守衛(wèi)，一望無垠。
its calm silence interrupted not the ascent of their prayers; it had no eyes to watch, no ears to hearken, no tongues to report of them;
那令人感到溫暖的寧靜沒有打斷他們登岸時的祈禱。沒有人盯著他們，沒有人偷聽他們的動靜，也沒有人報告他們的情況;
here, again, there was an answer to their soul's desire, and they were satisfied, and gave thanks;
在這里，他們心靈的渴望又一次得到滿足，他們對這種環(huán)境非常滿意，向上天的眷顧表示感謝。
they saw that they were free, and the desert smiled.
他們發(fā)現(xiàn)自己是自由的，即使這里是不毛之地也在所不惜。
I am telling an old tale; but it is one which must be told when we speak of those men.
我講述的是一個古老的傳奇。但是當我們提起這些人時，這是一個必須提及的傳奇。
It is to be added, that they transmitted their principles to their children, and that, peopled by such a race, our country was always free.
還應該補充的是，他們將他們畢生堅持的原則傳給他們的孩子，這樣一個種族繁衍的結果就是，我們的國家永遠是自由的。
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