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Statement to the Court 对法庭的声明

Eugene Victor Debs

尤金·维克托·德布斯

导读

尤金·维克托·德布斯（1855—1926）是美国工人运动领导人。1898年他协助创立美国社会党，并于1900年成为该党总统候选人。

德布斯和其他社会党人反对美国卷入第一次世界大战。由于他严厉批评威尔逊政府，于1918年6月以违反1917年《间谍法》被捕。在德布斯发表了以下这篇讲话后，法官判处他十年徒刑。

Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

阁下，若干年以前我认识到我与所有生物都有亲属关系，并依此断定我不比世界上最卑贱的人好到哪里去。当时我是这么说的，现在也还这样说：只要还有底层社会存在，我就是其中一员；只要还有罪犯的元素，我就是它的构成之一；只要还有人被囚禁在牢狱中，我就不是自由人。

I listened to all that was said in this court in support and justification of this prosecution, but my mind remains unchanged. I look upon the Espionage Law as a despotic enactment in flagrant conflict with democratic principles and with the spirit of free institutions…

我在法庭上听了支持这一起诉和为之辩护的所有证词，但我的想法始终如一。在我看来，《间谍法》是与民主原则和自由制度的精神公然对抗的蛮横法令……

Your Honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in a fundamental change—but if possible by peaceable and orderly means.

阁下，我在法庭上已经说过，我对我们现在的社会制度持反对态度；我坚信有必要作彻底的改变——尽可能采用和平的、有礼有节的手段。

Standing here this morning, I recall my boyhood. At fourteen I went to work in a railroad shop; at sixteen I was firing a freight engine on a railroad. I remember all the hardships and privations of that earlier day, and from that time until now my heart has been with the working class. I could have been in Congress long ago. I have preferred to go to prison…

我今天上午站在这里，回想起自己的童年。14岁那年我就在一家铁路工厂干活，16岁时在一辆货运机车上当司炉。早年的艰苦和贫困至今仍历历在目。从那时起到现在，我的心都与穷苦工人的心一起跳动。我早就应该在国会待着，可我宁愿进监狱……

I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and the factories; of the men in the mines and on the railroads. I am thinking of the women who for a paltry wage are compelled to work out their barren lives; of the little children who in this system are robbed of their childhood and in their tender years are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the monster machines while they themselves are being starved and stunted, body and soul. I see them dwarfed and diseased and their little lives broken and blasted because in this high noon of our twentieth-century Christian civilization money is still so much more important than the flesh and blood of childhood. In very truth gold is god today and rules with pitiless sway in the affairs of men.

此时此刻我想到工厂里的男工，想到在矿山和铁路上工作的男工；我想到为微薄的报酬被迫劳苦的妇女；想到被这个制度剥夺了童年、小小年纪便落入贪财鬼魔掌中的孩子们，他们被赶进牢笼般的工业机房，成为大工业怪兽的食物，心灵和肉体备受折磨；我看见他们发育不良，浑身是病，幼小的生命被极度摧残。因为在这20世纪上半期，基督教文明的金钱仍比儿童的血肉身躯更加重要。事实上，金钱才是这个今天的上帝，以毫无怜悯之心的权势对人类的事务横加支配。

In this country—the most favored beneath the bending skies-we have vast areas of the richest and most fertile soil, material resources in inexhaustible abundance, the most marvelous productive machinery on earth, and millions of eager workers ready to apply their labor to that machinery to produce in abundance for every man, woman, and child-and if there are still vast numbers of our people who are the victims of poverty and whose lives are an unceasing struggle all the way from youth to old age, until at last death comes to their rescue and lulls these hapless victims to dreamless sleep, it is not the fault of the Almighty: it cannot be charged to nature, but it is due entirely to the outgrown social system in which we live that ought to be abolished not only in the interest of the toiling masses but in the higher interest of all humanity.

我们这个国家有着优越的条件：我们土地辽阔而且富饶肥沃，我们有着取之不尽的原料资源，我们的机器设备是世界上生产力最强大的，为了我们国家的每个公民、每个儿童都能够享受这机器带来的利益，工人们使用这些机器制造出大量的产品。而如果我国继续有大量的人民沦为贫穷的殉葬品，一辈子疲于奔命，直到死亡来解脱他们，让他们的心不再痛苦，让这些不幸的被害者进入没有梦魇的长眠之中——那么，这样的罪过不是上帝造成的，不是自然造成的，而是我们畸形的社会制度造成的，这种社会制度应该被灭亡，这不仅是为劳动大众谋利，也是为所有的人类谋利。

I believe, Your Honor, in common with all Socialists, that this nation ought to own and control its own industries. I believe, as all Socialists do, that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned—that industry, the basis of our social life, instead of being the private property of a few and operated for their enrichment, ought to be the common property of all, democratically administered in the interest of all.

阁下，我同其他社会党人一致认为，这个国家应当拥有并控制它自己的工业。我与其他社会党人都认为，全民应当共同拥有一切人们所需要和使用的东西——工业作为社会生活的基础，不应成为少数人的私有财产，为他们积累财富而运转，工业应成为全民所有的共同财产，为了全民的利益应当对其施行民主化的管理。

I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.

我反对这样的社会秩序，它让一个对社会毫无贡献的人成为亿万富翁，而让百万劳苦大众在贫困线上挣扎。

This order of things cannot always endure. I have registered my protest against it. I recognize the feebleness of my effort, but, fortunately, I am not alone. There are multiplied thousands of others who, like myself, have come to realize that before we may truly enjoy the blessings of civilized life, we must reorganize society upon a mutual and cooperative basis; and to this end we have organized a great economic and political movement that spreads over the face of all the earth.

这种秩序不会永久长存。我已表达了我的抗议。我承认自己的努力不值一提，但值得庆幸的是我并非孤军作战。千千万万的人有着和我一样的意识，我们必须在共同合作的基础上建立社会，只有这样才能真正享受幸福的文明生活；为了这个目标，我们已组织起一个在全球内开展的伟大的经济政治运动。

There are today upwards of sixty millions of Socialists, loyal, devoted adherents to this cause, regardless of nationality, race, creed, color, or sex. They are all making common cause. They are spreading with tireless energy the propaganda of the new social order. They are waiting, watching, and working hopefully through all the hours of the day and the night. They are still in a minority. But they have learned how to be patient and to bide their time. The feel—they know, indeed—that the time is coming, in spite of all opposition, all persecution, when this emancipating gospel will spread among all the peoples, and when this minority will become the triumphant majority and, sweeping into power, inaugurate the greatest social and economic change in history.

如今社会党人已超过六百万，他们虽然国籍、种族、宗教、肤色、性别都各不相同，但都忠贞不渝地对待这一事业。他们正为共同的事业而行动。他们广泛宣传新的社会秩序，没有任何倦怠。他们等待着，观察着，充满了希望夜以继日地工作。虽然他们还是少数派，但他们知道该如何耐心地等待时机来临。他们感觉到——他们明白无误——虽然有很大的阻力，历经迫害，但这样的一天越来越近，解放的福音将恩及普天下的人民：这一少数派就会成为胜利的多数派，掌握政权，进行历史上最伟大的社会和经济变革。

In that day we shall have the universal commonwealth—the harmonious cooperation of every nation with every other nation on earth…

到那时我们将实现世界联邦——国与国之间携手并肩，融洽合作……

Your Honor, I ask no mercy and I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never so clearly comprehended as now the great struggle between the powers of greed and exploitation on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of industrial freedom and social justice.

阁下，我不企求你们的宽恕，我也不要求赦免。我早就意识到：真理终将战胜谬误！我从来都没有像现在这样清醒地理解这样伟大的斗争一方面是贪婪与剥削的权力横行；另一方面是正处于上升阶段的大量的工业自由与社会正义。

I can see the dawn of the better day for humanity. The people are awakening. In due time they will and must come to their own.

我能够看到人类博爱的黎明即将来临，人民正在觉醒。到时，他们一定会得到本应属于他们的一切。

When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the southern cross, burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches, the southern cross begins to bend, the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of time upon the dial of the universe, and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the lookout knows that the midnight is passing and that relief and rest are close at hand. Let the people everywhere take heart of hope, for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.

当我们的祖先漂洋过海、精疲力竭却还渴求信仰的时候，他们把目光投向南十字星。在狂暴的海洋上，南十字星熠熠生辉。当午夜来临，南十字星改变了方位。生生不息的世界斗转星移。万能的上帝在宇宙的刻度盘上拨弄星辰，调离时间。尽管从没有钟声敲打兴奋的潮汐，但是瞭望者却知道午夜正在消逝，苦难的解脱近在咫尺。让世界的每个角落的人们都布满希望吧，因为斗转星移，子夜逝去，喜悦将伴着黎明姗姗而来。

I am now prepared to receive your sentence.

现在，我已经准备好了接受你的审判。

Cloze 选词填空

I am thinking of the women who for a paltry wage are 1 to work out their barren lives; of the little children who in this system are robbed 2 their childhood and in their tender years are seized in the 3 grasp of Mammon and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the monster machines 4 they themselves are being starved and stunted, body and 5. I see them 6 and diseased and their little lives broken and blasted 7 in this high noon of our twentieth-century Christian civilization money is still so much more important than the 8 and blood of childhood. In very truth gold is god today and rules with pitiless 9 in the affairs of men.

Key

1. compelled 2. of 3. remorseless 4. while

5. soul 6. dwarfed 7. because 8. flesh 9. sway

Translation Practices 翻译练习

When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the southern cross, burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches, the southern cross begins to bend, the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of time upon the dial of the universe, and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the lookout knows that the midnight is passing and that relief and rest are close at hand. Let the people everywhere take heart of hope, for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.

参考译文

当我们的祖先漂洋过海、精疲力竭却还渴求信仰的时候，他们把目光投向南十字星。在狂暴的海洋上，南十字星熠熠生辉。当午夜来临，南十字星改变了方位。生生不息的世界斗转星移。万能的上帝在宇宙的刻度盘上拨弄星辰，调离时间。尽管从没有钟声敲打兴奋的潮汐，但是瞭望者却知道午夜正在消逝，苦难的解脱近在咫尺。让世界的每个角落的人们都布满希望吧，因为斗转星移，子夜逝去，喜悦将伴着黎明姗姗而来。