美国语文第六册 第190期:新英格兰清教徒先辈的品格(2)
因此，他们将自由看得高于财富、安逸和国家。他们或许喜欢和充分实践自由赋予的权利，
they forsook houses, and lands, and kindred, their homes, their native soil, and their fathers' graves.
为此他们可以放弃房子、土地、亲情、他们的家园，放弃他们的故土和祖先的坟墓。
They left all these; they left England, which, whatever it might have been called, was not to them a land of freedom;
他们抛弃了所有这些，他们离开英格兰，不论如何号召，对他们而言英格兰都不是自由的土地。
they launched forth on the pathless ocean, the wide, fathomless ocean, soiled not by the earth beneath, and bounded, all round and above, only by heaven;
他们在无路可走、一望无际和深不见底的大洋上起航，没有被地下的泥土弄脏，他们内心的向往只有上帝知道。
and it seemed to them like that better and sublimer freedom, which their country knew not,
对他们来说，这种向往似乎就像更好和更高尚的自由，而他们的祖国不晓得他们的追求，
but of which they had the conception and image in their hearts;
这个概念和想象只存在于他们心里。
and, after a toilsome and painful voyage, they came to a hard and wintry coast, unfruitful and desolate, but unguarded and boundless;
历经千辛万苦的远航后，他们抵达条件艰苦和风雪交加的海岸，他们食不果腹，孤零零地遗世而立，但是这里没有人守卫，一望无垠。
its calm silence interrupted not the ascent of their prayers; it had no eyes to watch, no ears to hearken, no tongues to report of them;
那令人感到温暖的宁静没有打断他们登岸时的祈祷。没有人盯着他们，没有人偷听他们的动静，也没有人报告他们的情况;
here, again, there was an answer to their soul's desire, and they were satisfied, and gave thanks;
在这里，他们心灵的渴望又一次得到满足，他们对这种环境非常满意，向上天的眷顾表示感谢。
they saw that they were free, and the desert smiled.
他们发现自己是自由的，即使这里是不毛之地也在所不惜。
I am telling an old tale; but it is one which must be told when we speak of those men.
我讲述的是一个古老的传奇。但是当我们提起这些人时，这是一个必须提及的传奇。
It is to be added, that they transmitted their principles to their children, and that, peopled by such a race, our country was always free.
还应该补充的是，他们将他们毕生坚持的原则传给他们的孩子，这样一个种族繁衍的结果就是，我们的国家永远是自由的。
