词汇提示

1.Normandy 诺曼底

2.allied 盟军

3.tyranny 暴政

4.Rangers 游骑兵

5.desolate 荒凉的

6.grenades 手榴弹

原文

Ronald Reagan: 'Speech at Normandy'

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied peoples joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty.

For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow.

Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation.

Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue.

Herein Normandy the rescue began.

Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.

We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France.

The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon.

At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs.

Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns.

The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers -at the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine-guns and throwing grenades.

And the American Rangers began to climb.

They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up.

When one Ranger fell, another would take his place.

When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again.

They climbed, shot back, and held their footing.

Soon,one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top,and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe.

Two hundred and twenty-five came here.

After two days of fighting only ninety could still bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs.

And before me are the men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc.

These are the men who took the cliffs.

These are the champions who helped free a continent.

These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Gentlemen,I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem.

You are men who in your lives fought for life...and left the vivid air signed with your honor'...

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here.

You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you.

Yet you risked everything here.

Why?Why did you do it?

What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs?

What inspired all the men of the armies that met here?

We look at you, and somehow, we know the answer.

It was faith, and belief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next.

It was the deep knowledge – and pray God we have not lost it -that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest.

You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause.

And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for.

One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for,because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.

All of you loved liberty.

All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

翻译

罗纳德·里根:“诺曼底演讲”

我们在这里纪念历史上的那一天，盟国人民共同为解放这片大陆而战。
在漫长的四年里，欧洲大部分地区都笼罩在可怕的阴影之下。
自由的国家已经沦陷，犹太人在集中营里大声疾呼，数百万人大声疾呼要求解放。
欧洲被奴役了，全世界都在祈祷拯救它。
在诺曼底，救援行动开始了。
盟军站在这里，在人类历史上无与伦比的伟大事业中与暴政作斗争。
我们站在法国北岸一个孤独的、被风吹过的地方。
空气是柔和的，但四十年前的这个时候，空气中弥漫着浓烟和人们的呼喊声，空气中充满了步枪的噼啪声和大炮的轰鸣声。
1944年6月6日清晨，黎明时分，225名游骑兵从英国登陆艇上跳下，奔向悬崖底部。
他们的任务是入侵中最困难和最大胆的任务之一:爬上这些陡峭而荒凉的悬崖，摧毁敌人的大炮。
盟军被告知，这里有一些最强大的大炮，它们将在海滩上接受训练，以阻止盟军的推进。
游骑兵们抬头一看，看到了悬崖边的敌军士兵，他们用机关枪和手榴弹向他们射击。
美国游骑兵开始往上爬。
他们把绳梯架在悬崖上，开始往上爬。
当一个游骑兵倒下时，另一个会接替他的位置。
当一根绳子被割断时，游骑兵就会抓住另一根绳子重新开始攀登。
他们爬上去，反击，站稳脚跟。
很快，游骑兵们一个接一个地爬上了山顶，在占领了悬崖顶上坚固的土地后，他们开始夺回欧洲大陆。
225人来过这里。
经过两天的战斗，只有90人还拿着武器。
我身后是一座纪念碑，象征着刺入悬崖顶端的游骑兵匕首。
在我面前的是把他们放在那里的人。
这些是奥克角的孩子们。
就是这些人占领了悬崖。
他们是帮助解放一个大陆的斗士。
他们是帮助结束战争的英雄。
先生们，我看着你们就想起了斯蒂芬·斯彭德的诗。
你们是为生命而战的人……留下了写有“阁下”字样的生动的空气……
自从你们在这里战斗以来，已经过去了40个夏天。
你踏上这些悬崖的那天还很年轻;你们中的一些人还仅仅是孩子，有着生命中最深的快乐。
但你却冒着一切危险。
为什么?你为什么要这么做?
是什么促使你们抛开自我保护的本能，冒着生命危险去爬这些悬崖?
是什么激励了所有在这里相遇的士兵?
我们看着你，不知怎么的，我们知道答案。
这是信念，是信念;那是忠诚和爱。
诺曼底的战士们坚信他们所做的是正确的，坚信他们为全人类而战，坚信公正的上帝会在这个滩头阵地或下一个滩头阵地给予他们怜悯。
这是一个深刻的认识——祈祷上帝我们没有失去它——在使用武力解放和使用武力征服之间存在着深刻的道德差异。
你们来这里是为了解放，而不是征服，所以你们和其他人都没有怀疑自己的事业。
你不怀疑是对的。
你们都知道有些东西是值得为之牺牲的。
一个人的国家值得为之牺牲，民主也值得为之牺牲，因为它是人类所创造的最崇高的政府形式。
你们所有人都热爱自由。
你们所有人都愿意与暴政作斗争，你们知道你们国家的人民都在支持你们。

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Level 5-Day 5.Ronald Reagan: Speech at Normandy