美利坚独立宣言 / The Declaration of Independence (1776) (忠实翻译)

美利坚独立宣言 / The Declaration of Independence (1776)

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 大陆会议，1776年7月4日。 美利坚十三联合邦一致宣言：

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 当在人类事务的进程中，一个民族必须解散那些将他们与另一个民族联系在一起的政治纽带，并依据自然法则和自然之神的法律所赋予他们的权利，在地球的列强之中取得独立且平等的地位时，出于对人类舆论的妥当尊重，要求他们必须宣布不得不迫使他们走向分离的原因。

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 我等认为这些真理是不证自明的：所有人皆被创造而平等，他们被其造物主赋予了某些不可剥夺的权利，在这些权利之中包括生命、自由以及对幸福的追求。

—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, ——为了保障这些权利，政府才在人类之中被建立起来，它们的正当权力乃是源于被统治者的同意；

—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. ——每当任何形式的政府变得对这些目的具有破坏性时，人民就有权利去改变它或废除它，并建立新的政府，新政府奠基所依据的原则、以及组织其权力所采用的形式，应当在人民看来是最有可能实现其安全与幸福的。

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 确乎，审慎将会指引：确立已久的政府不应因轻微且短暂的原因而予以更改；因此一切经验都表明，只要痛苦尚能忍受，人类宁愿选择承受，也不愿通过废除他们所习惯的政府形式来为自己伸张正义。

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. 然而，当一连串长期的滥用职权和强取豪夺始终追求着同一个目标，显露出企图将人民压制在绝对专制暴政之下的意图时，人民就有权利，亦有义务去推翻这样的政府，并为他们未来的安全提供新的守卫屏障。

—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. ——这就是这些殖民地过去隐忍承受的痛苦；这也就是如今迫使它们不得不改变其原有政府体制的必然性。

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. 当今大不列颠国王的历史，是一部重重伤害与巧取豪夺的历史，所有这些行径的直接目的，就是要在这些邦国之上建立起绝对的专制暴政。为证明此言，且将事实提交给公正的世界。

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. 彼拒绝批准那些对于公众利益而言最具裨益且必不可少的法律。

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 彼严禁其各殖民地总督通过具有急迫和重要性的法律，除非这些法律在获得其批准前暂缓生效；而当其被暂缓生效时，彼又彻底将其置之不理。

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. 彼拒绝批准旨在安置大片地区居民的其他法律，除非这些居民甘愿放弃他们在立法机关中的代表权——这项权利对人民而言乃是无价之宝，且唯独对暴君才是洪水猛兽。

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 彼在异乎寻常、极不舒适且远离公共档案存放地的地方召集立法机构开会，其唯一目的，就是使议员们疲惫不堪，被迫顺从他的措施。

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. 因民选众议院以男儿般的刚毅坚决反对他侵犯人民的权利，彼遂屡次解散众议院。

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. 在解散议会之后，彼又长期拒绝选举新议员；致使无法被消灭的立法权复归广大人民来行使；而在此期间，各邦境内外乱交迫，暴露于外来侵略与内部动荡的险境之中。

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. 彼竭力阻挠这些邦国的人口增长；为此目的，彼阻碍外籍人归化的法律；拒绝通过其他鼓励移民迁居此地的法律，并提高了新授土地的准入条件。

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. 彼通过拒绝批准设立司法权力的法律，从而阻挠了司法行政的执行。

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. 彼使法官的任期、薪金的数额及支付完全取决于他个人的意志。

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. 彼滥设了众多新官署，并派遣成群结队的官吏来到这里骚扰我们的人民，侵蚀他们的财产。

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. 在和平时期，彼未经我们立法机构的同意，便在我们中间驻扎常备军队。

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. 彼刻意将军队独立于文职政府之外，并使其凌驾于文职权力之上。

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their acts of pretended Legislation: 彼与他人（指英国国会）相勾结，使我们屈从于一种悖离我们宪章且不为我们法律所承认的司法管辖；彼批准了他们虚假的立法行径：

—For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: ——强行在我们中间派驻大批武装部队；

—For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: ——以模拟审判的方式进行庇护，使他们在各邦居民中行凶杀人时免受任何惩罚；

—For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: ——切断我们与世界各地的贸易往来；

—For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: ——未经我们同意，强行向我们征税；

—For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: ——在许多案件中，剥夺我们享有陪审团审判的利益；

—For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: ——将我们押送至海外，以审判莫须有的罪名；

—For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: ——在邻近行省废除自由的英国法律体系，在当地建立专制政府，并扩大其疆界，使其立刻成为在此处殖民地推行同样绝对专制统治的样板与适用工具；

—For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: ——强行收回我们的特许状，废除我们最珍贵的法律，并从根本上改变我们的政府形式；

—For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. ——中止我们自己的立法机构，并宣称他们自己握有在任何情况下为我们制定法律的绝对权力。

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. 彼宣布放弃在此处的治理，宣称我们已不受其保护，并向我们发动战争。

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 彼劫掠我们的海域，蹂躏我们的海岸，焚烧我们的城镇，残害我们人民的生命。

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. 彼此时正运送大批外国雇佣军前来，以完成残杀、荒芜与暴政的勾当，这些勾当已经伴随着在最野蛮的时代也难以找到匹敌的残酷与背信弃义的行径而开始，完全不配作为一个文明国家的元首。

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. 彼强迫在公海上被俘的我方同胞拿起武器攻打自己的祖国，使其成为残杀自己亲友手足的刽子手，或死于亲友手足之手。

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. 彼在我们内部煽动武装叛乱，并竭力唆使我们边疆的居民——那些残酷无情的印第安蛮族来攻；众所周知，他们的作战规则是不分老幼、男女和状况，一概斩尽杀绝。

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. 在这些压迫的每一个阶段，我们都曾用最谦卑的词句请求纠正和救济：而我们一再的请愿，得到的却只有一再的伤害。

A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 一个君主，其品格已被上述种种足以定义暴君的行径昭示天下，已不配再做自由人民的统治者。

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. 我们亦未尝对大不列颠的同胞弟兄失之照料。我们时常警告他们，其国会正企图将一种无理的管辖权横加于我们头上。

We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. 我们曾提醒他们，我们当年移民此地并安家落户的实际环境。我们曾诉诸他们天生的正义感与旷达胸襟，并恳求他们念在同胞血亲的分上，断然否定这些巧取豪夺之举，因为这些举动势必会斩断我们之间的联系与往来。

They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. 然而，他们对这正义与血亲的呼唤同样置若渺闻。因此，我们不得不默默顺从宣告我们分离的必然命运，将大不列颠人民视同人类其他民族一样：战时为仇敌，和时为朋友。

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; 因此，我们，齐聚于大陆会议的美利坚联合邦之代表，仰仗世界最高裁判明鉴我们意图的磊落与正当，以这些殖民地善良人民的名义与授权，谨此庄严发布并宣告：这些联合殖民地从此成为、且依理理应成为自由独立的国家；

that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; 它们解除对大不列颠王室的一切效忠，并且它们与大不列颠王国之间的一切政治联系亦自此完全废止；

and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. 并且作为自由独立的国家，它们享有宣战、媾和、缔结盟约、通商，以及独立国家依理有权采取的一切行动与事务的全部权力。

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. 为了支持这一宣言，并在对神圣天佑之保护的坚定信赖下，我们以彼此的生命、财产和神圣的名誉，相互郑重誓约。

本翻译意在纠正传统翻译中的个别问题，例如将被动词created翻译为主动词”生“而不是原文的“被造”，这更反映当时人们的思想意识。