Lesson43 Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream"
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as thegreatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we standtoday, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions ofNegro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. Itcame as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred yearslater, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles ofsegregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, theNegro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean ofmaterial prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishedin the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his ownland. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring fromevery village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will beable to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and whitemen, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to joinhands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
emancipation 解放
proclamation 宣告
beacon 灯塔
manacle 镣铐, 束缚
languish 受苦，受折磨
gentile 非犹太教徒, 异教徒
马丁•路德•金：我有一个梦
1936年8月28日于华盛顿特区林肯纪念堂
今天，我很高兴地同大家一起，参加这次将成为我国历史上为了争取自由而举行的最伟大的示威集会。
一百年前，一位伟大的美国人签署了《解放宣言》,今天我们就是在他的雕像前聚会。这一庄严宣言犹如灯塔的光芒，给千百万在那摧残生命的不义之火中受煎熬的黑奴带来了希望。它之到来犹如欢乐的黎明，结束了桎梏黑人的漫漫长夜。
然而，一百年后的今天，我们必须正视黑人还没有得到自由这一悲惨的事实。一百年后的今天，在种族隔离的镣铐和种族歧视的枷锁下，黑人的生活依然凄惨不堪。一百年后的今天，黑人仍生活在物质充裕的海洋中一个贫穷的孤岛上。一百年后的今天，黑人仍然萎缩在美国社会的角落里，并且意识到自己是故土家园的流亡者。今天我们在这里集会，就是要描述这些骇人听闻的情况。
当我们让自由之声响起来，当我们让自由之声从每一个大小村庄，每一个州和每一个城市响起来时，我们将能够加速这一天的到来。这一天，上帝的所有儿女，黑人和白人，犹太教徒和非犹太教徒，新教徒和天主教徒，都将手携手，合唱一首古老的黑人灵歌：
终于自由啦！终于自由啦！
感谢全能的上帝，我们终于自由啦！ |