他本是一战中的无名英雄,直到里根总统在就职演说中引用了他的誓言……

2017年09月16日 美国驻华大使馆


马丁·特雷普托(公有领域)


“美国必须赢得这场战争。为此,我会奋斗,我会拯救,我会牺牲,我会忍受,我会乐于战斗并将尽我最大的努力奋战,就像整个战争的胜负都取决于我一人那样。”

以上这段话是美国前总统罗纳德·里根在1981年1月20日首次就职演说中引述一名在第一次世界大战中阵亡的士兵在日记中写下的誓言。 这名阵亡时只有24岁的士兵名字叫做马丁·特雷普托。 在里根总统就职演说快结束时,他谈到阵亡将士纪念碑及英雄主义,并激动地用强忍着颤动的声音描述阿灵顿国家公墓山丘上简单而整齐的英雄墓碑, 讲述特雷普托的故事,朗读他在日记中写下的誓言。本来特雷普托只是一名战争中的无名英雄,但由于里根总统从支持者那里收到关于特雷普托故事的信,今天特雷普托的名字已被里根总统载入了美国历史书籍之中。

以下是里根总统就职演说中部分感人的节录:

如果我们要解释这么多年来我们为什么能取得这么大的成就,并获得了世界上任何一国人民都未曾获得的繁荣昌盛,其原因是在这片土地上,我们使人类的能量和个人的才智得到了前所未有的发挥。在这里,个人自由和尊严能够获得并得到确保,超过了世界上任何其他地方。为这种自由付出的代价有时是高昂的,但我们从来没有不愿意付出这种代价。

If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on Earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on Earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay that price.

有人说我们正处于一个没有英雄的时代,那是由于他们不知道上哪里去寻找英雄。在阿灵顿国家公墓的坡地上,竖立着一排排刻有十字架和大卫王之星的素白墓碑。它们仅仅代表着我们为自由所付出的代价的一小部分。

Those who say that we’re in a time when there are not heroes, they just don’t know where to look. The sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery, with its row upon row of simple white markers bearing crosses or Stars of David. They add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom.

每一块墓碑都是纪念我在前面谈及的那些英雄们的丰碑。在贝卢伍德、阿尔贡、奥马哈海滩、萨莱诺,以及在远在地球另一边的瓜达卡纳尔岛、塔拉瓦岛、猪排山、长津水库和一个叫做越南的地方的数百块稻田和丛林中,他们献出了自己的生命。

Each one of those markers is a monument to the kind of hero I spoke of earlier. Their lives ended in places called Belleau Wood, The Argonne, Omaha Beach, Salerno, and halfway around the world on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies and jungles of a place called Vietnam.

在其中的一块墓碑下安息着一位名叫马丁·特雷普托的年轻人。他原本在一座小镇的理发店工作,1917年他放弃工作,随著名的“彩虹师”一起开赴法国。他在西线冒着密集的炮火为部队传递情报,不幸阵亡。

Under one such marker lies a young man, Martin Treptow, who left his job in a small town barbershop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire.

有人告诉我们在他的身上发现了一本日记。扉页上在“我的誓言”的标题下面,他写下了这样的话语:“美国必须赢得这场战争。为此,我会奋斗,我会拯救,我会牺牲,我会忍受,我会乐于战斗并将尽我最大的努力奋战,就像整个战争的胜负都取决于我一人那样。”

We’re told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading, “My Pledge,” he had written these words: “America must win this war. Therefore I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.”

至于那些自由的敌人,那些潜在的对手,我们要提醒他们,和平乃是美国人民最崇高的愿望。为争取和平,我们可以谈判,可以做出牺牲;但我们绝不为乞求和平而投降,现在不会,将来也永远不会。我们是美国人。

As for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries, they will be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of the American people. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it; we will not surrender for it, now or ever. We are Americans.

 

1981年1月20日罗纳德·里根总统就职演说 (来源:里根总统图书馆)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEqVnU-m9dE

(来源: YOUTUBE/NET STOOPID https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=Wt8y18YFH70 )

 


马丁·特雷普托(公有领域)

 

马丁·特雷普托的日记(公有领域)



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