He shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.
But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country. Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you toknow that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.
我的生命已近黄昏，暮色已经降临，我昔日的风采和荣誉已经消失。它们随着对昔日事业的憧憬，带着那余晖消失了。昔日的记忆奇妙而美好，浸透了眼泪和昨日微笑的安慰和抚爱。我尽力但徒然地倾听，渴望听到军号吹奏起床导对那微弱而迷人的旋律，以及远处战鼓急促敲击的动人节奏。我在梦幻中依稀又听到了大炮在轰鸣，又听到了滑膛枪在鸣放，又听到了战场上那陌生、哀愁的呻吟。
然而，晚年的回忆经常将我带回到西点军校。我的耳旁回响着，反复回响着：责任，荣誉，国家。今天是我同你们进行的最后一次点名。但我愿你们知道，当我到达彼岸时，我最后想的是学员队，学员队，还是学员队。
Douglas MacArthue’s Words to Pray for His Son麦克阿瑟为儿子的祈祷词
望子成龙是天下父母最大的心愿，即使是征战沙场的麦克阿瑟将军也未能免俗，看着这篇柔情至深的为儿子祈福的祷告词，不仅使人联想起了鲁迅先生的一句名言“怜子何如不丈夫”。
Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when his afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.
Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds; a son who will know Thee-and that to know himself is the foundation of knowledge.
Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge.
Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.
Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will reach into the future, and never forget the past.
And after all these things are his, add, I pray enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, and the meekness of true strength. Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, “I have not lived in vain.”
主啊，恳请这样塑造我的儿子；使他强于自知他软弱之处；恐惧时勇于正视自己；诚实受挫时自豪不屈；胜利顺境时谦逊温情。
恳请这样塑造我的儿子：使他不仅能胸怀希望，而且能付诸行动；使他能够感知您的至圣；使他了解自知之明是一切知识的基石。
恳请不要把他引入贪图安逸、舒适的歧途，而使他能够在困难及挑战的压力和督促之下奋勇前进。
在此请让他学会在暴风雨中屹立不屈，同时请让他学会对受到挫折的人给予理解和同情。
恳请为我培养一个心地清明、目标高远的儿子，使他成为一个能责人之心责己的人，一个前事不忘后事之师的人。
除此之外，还请求您赐于他一点幽默感，使他既严肃又不失活泼。凭着这种幽默感，让他了解真正的伟大是平凡，真正的智慧是宽广的心胸，真正的力量是柔和。那么，我、他的父亲，才敢默默自许“我这辈子没有白活。”
The Lecture of Lincoln in Gettysburg林肯葛底斯堡演说词
Abraham Lincoln
Delivered on the 19th Day of November, 1863
Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continenta new Nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition thatall men are created equal. Now, we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that Nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for thosewho gave their lives that Nation might live. It is altogether fitting andproper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannothallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world willlittle note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget whatthey did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated to thegreat task remaining before us; that from these honored dead, we takeincreased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measureof devotion; that this Nation, under god, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the People by the People and for the People shall notperish from the earth.
葛底斯堡演说
亚伯拉罕·林肯，1963年11月19日
87年前，我们的先辈们在这个大陆上创立了一个新国家，它孕育于自由之中，奉行一切人生来平等的原则。现在我们正从事一场伟大的内战，以考验这个国家，或者任何一个孕育于自由和奉行上述原则的国家是否能够长久存在下去。我们在这场战争中的一个伟大战场上集会。烈士们为使这个国家能够生存下去而献出了自己的生命，我们来到这里，是要把这个战场的一部分奉献给他们作为最后安息之所。我们这样做是完全应该而且是非常恰当的。
但是，从更广泛的意义上来说，这块土地我们不能够奉献，不能够圣化，不能够神化。那些曾在这里战斗过的勇士们，活着的和去世的，已经把这块土地圣化了，这远不是我们微薄的力量所能增减的。我们今天在这里所说的话，全世界不大会注意，也不会长久地记住，但勇士们在这里所做过的事，全世界却永远不会忘记。毋宁说，倒是我们这些还活着的人，应该在这里把自己奉献于勇士们已经如此崇高地向前推进但尚未完成的事业。倒是我们应该在这里把自己奉献于仍然留在我们面前的伟大任务——我们要从这些光荣的死者身上汲取更多的献身精神，来完成他们已经完全彻底为之献身的事业；我们要在这里下定最大的决心，不让这些死者白白牺牲；我们要使国家在上帝福佑下得到自由的新生，要使这个民有、民治、民享的政府永世长存。
Bell and His Legacy亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔——电话发明者的故事
It is such a common occurrence that no one ever wonders from whence it came. But the telephone has a fascinating story behind it, one that could be entitled. “The Conquest of Solitude.” It is the story of Alexander Graham Bell.
He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1847, the son of a man who was consumed, passionately consumed, with the workings of the human voice, how it is produced and used, and especially, in teaching the deaf how to use it. For in those days, you see, the deaf lived in permanent solitude. Not only could they not hear, they could not speak. After all, how could they pronounce words, they couldn’t hear? Perhaps this obsession of the elder Bell was one of the reasons he married whom he did. For the woman who would give birth to the inventor of the telephone…was deaf!
