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June 6, 1944 一九四四年六月六日

導讀

當談到戰(zhàn)爭，我們很容易就會想到它的殘酷性——多少人因此喪生，多少人流離失所，我們會因此懷念那些為了和平而犧牲的英雄們，紀念他們的浴血奮戰(zhàn)，與此同時我們也會譴責那些戰(zhàn)爭犯，怒斥他們的種種罪行，等等。我們以我們的方式紀念、記住了戰(zhàn)爭，但是，戰(zhàn)爭本身是帶給人傷痛的，所以緬懷戰(zhàn)爭本身不是主要的目的。在諾曼底登陸戰(zhàn)發(fā)生60年后，我們的視角應該轉(zhuǎn)向戰(zhàn)爭給后人的啟發(fā)上面——以戰(zhàn)爭為戒，珍視和平，維護和平！

Sixty years ago today, the free world held its breath. In America, daily life paused almost completely, subdued by the news that the invasion of Europe—D-Day—had begun. From the 21st century, we try to imagine the scale of what went forward in that gray dawn after years of preparation—the ships and men and materiel, the re serves of willpower and determination. What we some times forget to imagine is the almost prayerful nature of the day, the profound investment of hope and fear it entailed. It was a day in America and in Europe when civilians as surely as soldiers felt the whole of their lives concentrated on the outcome of a few hours. There has not been another time like it, when we knew that history was about to turn before our eyes.

60年前的今天，自由世界屏住了呼吸。在美國，諾曼底登陸的消息傳來，日常生活幾乎完全停頓了。今天，我們站在21世紀去想象發(fā)生在那個灰暗的黎明、經(jīng)過多年準備的進攻，戰(zhàn)船、戰(zhàn)士、作戰(zhàn)物資，還有儲備已久的意志和決心，規(guī)模氣勢之宏大令人難以想象。可是我們有時卻忘了，那一天也是在祈禱中度過的，人們對登陸投入了極大的希望，同時也心存極大的恐懼。那一天，在美國和歐洲，平民和士兵一樣，感到他們?nèi)康纳季S系在那幾個小時戰(zhàn)斗的結(jié)局上。歷史上從來沒有過這樣的時刻，因為人們知道歷史即將在他們眼前發(fā)生變化。

In a way, D-Day sums up for us the whole of World War Ⅱ. It was the frontal clash of two ideas, a collision between the possibility of human freedom and its nullification. Even now, we are still learning what to make of it, still trying to know whether we are dwarfed by the scale of such an effort or whether what happened that day still en larges us. It certainly enlarges the veterans of Normandy and their friends who died in every zone of that war.

在某種意義上說，諾曼底登陸是第二次世界大戰(zhàn)全景的縮影。它是兩種觀念的正面沖突，是自由和奴役之間的生死決戰(zhàn)。即便在今天，我們?nèi)匀辉谡J識它的意義，仍然在尋找答案，我們到底是因那宏大的戰(zhàn)爭場景顯得矮小了，還是因此而變得高大。毫無疑問，那一天肯定使參與諾曼底登陸的退役軍人和他們在各個戰(zhàn)區(qū)中犧牲的戰(zhàn)友們變得高大。

It's tempting to politicize the memory of a day so full of personal and national honor, too easy to allude to the wars of our times as if they naturally mirrored World War Ⅱ. The iconic starkness of the forces that met on the beaches of Normandy makes that temptation all the greater. But beyond the resemblance of young soldiers dying in wars 60 years apart, there is no analogy, and that is something we must remember today as well. D-Day was the result of broad in ternational accord. By D-Day, Europe had been at war—total war—for nearly five years, at profound cost to its civilian population. American civilians, in turn, had willingly made enormous material sacrifices to sustain the war effort. There was no pretense that ordinary life would go on unin terrupted and no assumption that America could go it alone.

今天我們回憶這一天，很容易將其政治化，因為那一天充滿了個人的光榮和國家的榮耀，我們很容易將它和今天的戰(zhàn)爭聯(lián)系起來，仿佛我們今天進行的戰(zhàn)爭自然可以和第二次世界大戰(zhàn)同日而語。在諾曼底海灘上交鋒的兩股勢力象征著壁壘分明的善惡對峙，這就更誘人想做這種聯(lián)想。但是，60年后正在進行的戰(zhàn)爭和第二次世界大戰(zhàn)除了年輕的戰(zhàn)士正在犧牲之外，并沒有任何相似之處。這一點我們今天也必須記住。諾曼底登陸是廣泛國際合作的結(jié)果。截至登陸日，歐洲早已戰(zhàn)火紛飛，將近五年的戰(zhàn)爭使得平民生靈涂炭。美國的平民為了支持這場戰(zhàn)爭，也心甘情愿地做出了巨大的物質(zhì)犧牲。當時人們已經(jīng)不能無視戰(zhàn)爭而一如往常地生活，人們也不能相信美國可以獨自行動。

We may find the heroics of D-Day stirring in the extreme. We may struggle to imagine the special hell of those beaches，the almost despairing lurch of the landing craft as they motored toward France. Those were brave times. But it was a bravery of shared sacrifice, a willing ness to rise to an occasion that everyone prayed would never need to come again. This is a day to respect the memory of 60 years ago and, perhaps, to wonder what we might rise to if only we asked it of ourselves.

今天我們會覺得諾曼底登陸那天的英雄壯舉令人感動，我們簡直可能無法想象當年海灘上地獄般的激戰(zhàn)，無法想象沖向法國海岸的登陸艇是如何在波濤中絕望地顛簸前行的。這些都是勇敢的時刻。但這是同舟共濟的勇敢行為，它顯示了那一代人在需要他們的時刻挺身而起面對挑戰(zhàn)的意志，而我們每個人都禱告，那樣的時刻不要再來。讓我們在這一天以崇敬的心情回憶60年前那次恢宏的戰(zhàn)役，也許我們還可以借此自問，要是我們也被召喚，我們能面對什么樣的挑戰(zhàn)？

Look at the following sentences and tell whether they are right or wrong.

1. From the passage, we know that remembering those heroes is most important thing.

2. The passage is titled June 6, 1944 to tell people to keep this war in mind and think about it and to draw a lesson from it.

3. In the text it says that the Normandy Landing sums up to the whole WWⅡ because it was between Germany and France.

4. The wars happened before and the wars that are happening and will happen in the future have the same goals exactly.

Key

1. × 2. √ 3. × 4. ×

Emulation 美文自己寫得出——學生仿寫

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仿寫范例

For Equal Rights

Forty-five years ago, the world was all ears. In front of the Lincoln Memorial, the crowd gathered, all absorbed by the inspiring words that came out from a man who spoke up for his people who have remained repressed even after they were legally free of slavery. And nearly a hundred years ago before that, Abraham Lincoln, braving all the doubts and criticism against him, preserved the unity of the whole nation through the Civil War and liberated a people who had been suffered from discrimination and segregation the first time they stepped on this land. And today, an outstanding man of African origin has become the president of the United States of America, which marks a new chapter of the history of African Americans in the US and also of the history of this land of democracy and freedom.

Despite the difficulties beyond them, the African Americans have never ceased to continue their struggle for equal rights. Step by step, they are endeavored with formidable persistence and spared no effort to rewrite a new chapter of history of their own. Thus today, a man whose father more than fifty years ago was not given the right to vote can stand before hundreds of millions of people and make the most sacred oath as the president of a nation when segregation and discrimination against the African Americans used to be rampant.