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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
The tribute
I stand before you today, the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning, before a world in shock.
We are all united, not only in our desire to pay our respects to Diana, but rather in our need to do so, because such was her extraordinary appeal that the tens of millions of people taking part in this service all over the world via television and radio who never actually met her feel that they too lost someone close to them in the early hours of Sunday morning.
It is a more remarkable1 tribute to Diana then I can ever hope to offer to her today.
Diana was the very essence of compassion2, of duty, of style, of beauty.
All over the world she was the symbol of selfless humanity. A standard bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden. A very British girl who transcended3 nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.
Today is our chance to say ‘thank you’ for the way you brightened our lives, even though God granted you but half a life. We will all feel cheated always that you were taken from us so young and yet we must learn to be grateful that you came at all.
Only now you are gone do we truly appreciate what we are without, and we want you to know that life without you is very, very difficult.
We have all despaired for our loss over the past week and only the strength of the message you gave us through your years of giving has afforded us the strength to move forward.
There is a temptation to rush, to canonize your memory. There is no need to do so. You stand tall enough as a human being of unique qualities, and do not need to be seen as a saint.
Indeed, to sanctify your memory would be to miss out on the very core of your being—your wonderfully mischievous5 sense of humour with a laugh that bent6 you double, your joy for life transmitted wherever you took your smile and the sparkle in those unforgettable eyes, your boundless7 energy which you could barely contain.
But your greatest gift was your intuition and it was a gift you used wisely. This is what under pinned all your other wonderful attributes.
And if we look to analyse what it was about you that had such a wide appeal we find it in your instinctive8 feel for what was really important in all our lives.
Without your God-given sensitivity, we would be immersed in greater ignorance at the anguish9 of Aids and HIV sufferers, the plight10 of the homeless, the isolation11 of lepers, the random12 destruction of land mines.
Diana explained to me once that it was her innermost feelings of suffering that made it possible for her to connect with her constituency of the rejected.
And here we come to another truth about her. For all the status, the glamour13, the applause, Diana remained throughout a very insecure person at heart, almost childlike in her desire to do good for others so she could release herself from deep feelings of unworthiness of which her eating disorders14 were merely a symptom.
The world sensed this part of her character and cherished her vulnerability.
The last time I saw Diana was on July 1st, her birthday, in London when typically she was not taking time to celebrate her special day with friends but was guest of honour at a fund-raising charity evening. She sparkled, of course.
But I would rather cherish the days I spent with her in March when she came to visit me and my children at our home in South Africa. I am proud of the fact that, apart from when she was on public display meeting President Mandela, we managed to contrive15 to stop the ever-present paparazzi from getting a single picture of her. That meant a lot to her.
These are days I will always treasure. It was as if we were transported back to our childhood when we spent such an enormous amount of time together as the two youngest in the family.
Fundamentally she hadn‘t changed at all from the big sister who mothered me as a baby, fought with me at school, who endured those long journeys between our parents’ home with me at weekends.
It is a tribute to her level-headedness and strength that despite the most bizarre life after her childhood, she remained intact, true to herself.
There is no doubt she was looking for a new direction in her life at this time. She talked endlessly of getting away from England, mainly because of the treatment that she received at the hands of the newspapers.
I don‘t think she ever understood why her genuinely good intentions were sneered16 at by the media, why there appeared to be a permanent quest on their behalf to bring her down. It is baffling. My own and only explanation is that genuine goodness is threatening to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum17.
It is a point to remember that of all the ironies18 about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this: a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age.
She would want us today to pledge ourselves to protecting her beloved boys, William and Harry19, from a similar fate, and I do this here, Diana, on your behalf.
We will not allow them to suffer the anguish that used regularly to drive you to tearful despair. And beyond that, on behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative and loving way in which you were steering20 these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.
We fully4 respect the heritage into which they have both been born and will always respect and encourage them in their royal role. But we, like you, recognize the need for them to experience as many different aspects of life as possible to arm them spiritually and emotionally for the years ahead. I know you would have expected nothing less from us.
William and Harry, we all care desperately21 for you today. We are all chewed up with sadness at the loss of a woman who wasn‘t even our mother. How great your suffering is we cannot even imagine.
I would like to end by thanking God for the small mercies he has shown us at this dreadful time, for taking Diana at her most beautiful and radiant and when she had joy in her private life.
Above all, we give thanks for the life of a woman I‘m so proud to be able to call my sister the unique, the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana whose beauty, both internal and external, will never be extinguished from our minds.
By Earl Spencer
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1
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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2
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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3
transcended
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| 超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的过去式和过去分词 )； 优于或胜过… | |
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4
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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5
mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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6
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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7
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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8
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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10
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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11
isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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12
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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13
glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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14
disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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15
contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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16
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17
spectrum
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| n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列 | |
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ironies
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| n.反语( irony的名词复数 )；冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事；嘲弄 | |
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19
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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20
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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