Unit 9
Unit 9
Table of Contents
Audio
Text&Translation
When Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met in the parlor of a modest house at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, to work out the terms for the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, a great chapter in American life came to a close, and a great new chapter began.
1865年4月9日，尤利西斯·格兰特与罗伯特·李在弗吉尼亚州阿波马托克斯法院镇一栋简朴住宅的客厅会面，商议李将军麾下北弗吉尼亚军团的投降条款。那一刻，美国历史翻过沉重一页，又开启了崭新篇章。
These men were bringing the Civil War to its virtual finish². To be sure, other armies had yet to surrender, and for a few days the fugitive Confederate government³ would struggle desperately and vainly, trying to find some way to go on living now that its chief support⁴ was gone. But in effect it was all over when Grant and Lee signed the papers. And the little room where they wrote out the terms was the scene of one of the poignant, dramatic contrasts in American history.
这两位将领的会晤，为美国内战画上了几近实质性的句号。诚然，尚有他部军队有待归降，流亡的邦联政府在几天之内，仍会困兽犹斗，徒劳地寻求苟延残喘之机，只因其主要支柱已然崩塌。但格兰特和李签署文件的那一刻，大局已定。他们草拟条款的那间小屋，也因此成为美国历史上最令人感慨、最具戏剧性的对比场景之一。
They were two strong men, these oddly different generals, and they represented the strengths of two conflicting currents that, through them, had come into final collision⁵.
这两位性格迥异的将军，皆是铁骨铮铮的汉子，他们分别代表了两种相互冲突的思潮力量，并通过他们，最终走向了激烈的碰撞。
Back of Robert E. Lee was the notion that the old aristocratic concept⁶ might somehow survive and be dominant in American life.
罗伯特·李所承载的，是旧时贵族理念或能延续并在美国社会占据主导地位的希冀。
Lee was tidewater Virginia⁷, and in his background were family, culture, and tradition... the age of chivalry transplanted to a New World which was making its own legends and its own myths. He embodied a way of life that had come down through the age of knighthood⁸ and the English country squire⁹. America was a land that was beginning all over again, dedicated to nothing much more complicated than the rather hazy belief⁰ that all men had equal rights and should have an equal chance in the world. In such a land Lee stood for the feeling that it was somehow of advantage to human society to have a pronounced inequality in the social structure. There should be a leisure class, backed by ownership of land; in turn, society itself should be keyed to the land² as the chief source of wealth and influence. It would bring forth (according to this ideal) a class of men with a strong sense of obligation to the community; men who lived not to gain advantage for themselves, but to meet the solemn obligations which had been laid on them by the very fact that they were privileged. From them the country would get its leadership; to them it could look for the higher values—of thought, of conduct, of personal deportment¹³—to give it strength and virtue.
李将军是弗吉尼亚沿海贵族的缩影，其身后是显赫的家世、深厚的文化积淀与悠久的传统……那是骑士时代精神在新大陆的移植生根，而这片新大陆正书写着属于自己的传奇与神话。他所代表的生活方式，传承自骑士时代与英格兰乡绅的遗风。彼时的美国，是一片从零开始的土地，其立国之本，不过是“人人生而平等，机遇均等”这一朴素而略显朦朧的信条。在这样的国度里，李所坚守的信念是，社会结构中显著的等级差异，于人类社会的发展不无裨益。应当存在一个以土地所有权为根基的有闲阶层；相应的，整个社会也应以土地为财富与权势的主要源泉。这一理想将孕育出一批对社会怀有强烈责任感的精英阶层；他们生活的目的并非为己牟利，而是要肩负起因其特权地位而承担的庄严职责。国家将从他们之中遴选领袖；并期望他们秉持思想、品行与个人风范等更高层次的价值观，为国家注入力量与美德。
Lee embodied the noblest elements of this aristocratic ideal. Through him, the landed nobility justified itself⁴. For four years, the Southern states¹⁵ had fought a desperate war to uphold the ideals for which Lee stood. In the end, it almost seemed as if the Confederacy fought for Lee; as if he himself was the Confederacy... the best thing that the way of life for which the Confederacy stood could ever have to offer. He had passed into legend⁶ before Appomattox. Thousands of tired, underfed, poorly clothed Confederate soldiers, long since past the simple enthusiasm of the early days of the struggle, somehow considered Lee the symbol of everything for which they had been willing to die. But they could not quite put this feeling into words. If the Lost Cause¹⁷, sanctified⁸ by so much heroism and so many deaths, had a living justification¹, its justification was General Lee.
李将军正是这种贵族理想最高尚元素的化身。通过他，土地贵族阶层证明了自身存在的价值。四年来，南方各州为捍卫李所代表的理想，浴血奋战，不惜一切。战至终章，邦联仿佛是为李而战；李本人，俨然就是邦联的化身……是邦联所代表的生活方式所能呈现的极致辉光。阿波马托克斯之前，他早已成为传奇。成千上万饥肠辘辘、衣衫褴褛、疲惫不堪的邦联士兵，早已磨灭了战争初期的那份单纯热忱，却在某种程度上将李视为他们甘愿付出生命所捍卫的一切的象征。只是这种情感，他们难以言表。倘若说“败局命定”的南方事业，因无数英雄的壮举与牺牲而被赋予了神圣的光环，那么李将军便是其鲜活的、唯一的正义注脚。
Grant, the son of a tanner on the Western frontier²⁰, was everything Lee was not. He had come up the hard way²¹ and embodied nothing in particular except the eternal toughness and sinewy fiber²² of the men who grew up beyond the mountains. He was one of a body of men who owed reverence and obeisance to no one²⁴, who were self-reliant to a fault²⁵, who cared hardly anything for the past but who had a sharp eye for the future.
格兰特，这位西部边陲皮革匠的儿子，则与李截然不同。他历经艰辛，白手起家，除了体现出大山以外地区长大的人们那种坚韧不拔、刚毅强健的永恒特质外，别无其他特殊标签。他属于那样一群人：他们不向任何人卑躬屈膝，极度自力更生，对往昔岁月几乎不屑一顾，却对未来有着敏锐的洞察。
These frontiersmen were the precise opposites of the tidewater aristocrats. Back of them, in the great surge that had taken people over the Alleghenies and into the opening Western country²⁶, there was a deep, implicit dissatisfaction with a past that had settled into grooves²⁷. They stood for democracy, not from any reasoned conclusion about the proper ordering of human society, but simply because they had grown up in the middle of democracy and knew how it worked. Their society might have privileges, but they would be privileges each man had won for himself. Forms and patterns meant nothing. No man was born to anything, except perhaps to a chance to show how far he could rise. Life was competition.
这些边疆开拓者与沿海地区的贵族们形成了鲜明的对照。在他们身后，在那股引领人们跨越阿勒格尼山脉、涌入西部新兴疆域的巨大浪潮之中，潜藏着对一成不变、墨守成规的旧秩序的深深不满。他们崇尚民主，并非源于对人类社会秩序的深思熟虑，而仅仅因为他们生于斯、长于斯，深谙其道。他们的社会或许存在特权，但那必定是每个人凭借自身努力赢取的。形式与窠臼毫无意义。人生而非注定拥有什么，或许除了一个能证明自己潜能无限的机会。人生即是竞争。
Yet along with this feeling had come a deep sense of belonging to a national community²⁸. The Westerner who developed a farm, opened a shop, or set up in business as a trader, could hope to prosper only as his own community prospered—and his community ran from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada down to Mexico. If the land was settled, with towns and highways and accessible markets, he could better himself. He saw his fate in terms of the nation's own destiny. As its horizons expanded, so did his. He had, in other words, an acute dollars-and-cents stake²⁹ in the continued growth and development of his country.
然而，与此相伴而生的，是一种对国家共同体的深厚归属感。无论是开垦农场、经营店铺，还是从事贸易的西部人，其自身的繁荣都离不开他所属共同体的兴旺——而这个共同体，横跨大西洋至太平洋，南抵墨西哥，北达加拿大。只有当土地得到开垦，城镇兴起，道路畅通，市场便利，他才能改善自身境遇。他将个人命运与国家前途紧密相连。国家的疆界拓展，他的视野亦随之开阔。换言之，国家的持续成长与发展，与他有着休戚相关的经济利益。
And that, perhaps, is where the contrast between Grant and Lee becomes most striking. The Virginia aristocrat, inevitably, saw himself in relation to his own region. He lived in a static society which could endure almost anything except change. Instinctively, his first loyalty would go to the locality in which that society existed. He would fight to the limit of endurance to defend it, because in defending it he was defending everything that gave his own life its deepest meaning.
或许，正是在这一点上，格兰特与李的差异表现得最为显著。弗吉尼亚的贵族，不可避免地将自身视作其所属地域的一分子。他生活在一个可以容忍一切唯独惧怕变革的凝固社会之中。出于本能，他首要效忠的是其社会所在的乡土。他会为捍卫它而竭尽全力，直至最后一刻，因为捍卫它，便是在捍卫赋予他生命以最深层意义的一切。
The Westerner, on the other hand, would fight with an equal tenacity for the broader concept of society. He fought so because everything he lived by was tied to growth, expansion, and a constantly widening horizon. What he lived by would survive or fall with the nation itself. He could not possibly stand by unmoved in the face of an attempt to destroy the Union. He would combat it with everything he had, because he could only see it as an effort to cut the ground out from under his feet³⁰.
而西部人则会以同等的坚韧，为更广阔的社会理念而战。他之所以如此，是因为他赖以生存的一切都与成长、扩张及不断拓展的视野息息相关。他的立身之本与国家民族的存亡休戚与共。面对任何分裂联邦的企图，他绝不可能袖手旁观，无动于衷。他会倾其所有与之抗争，因为在他看来，这无异于釜底抽薪，动摇他的立足之基。
So Grant and Lee were in complete contrast, representing two diametrically opposed elements in American life. Grant was the modern man emerging; beyond him, ready to come on the stage, was the great age of steel and machinery, of crowded cities and a restless burgeoning vitality³¹. Lee might have ridden down from the old age of chivalry, lance in hand, silken banner fluttering over his head³². Each man was the perfect champion of his cause, drawing both his strengths and his weaknesses from the people he led.
因此，格兰特与李形成了鲜明的对比，代表了美国社会中两种截然对立的元素。格兰特是新兴现代人的代表；在他身后，一个钢铁与机器的伟大时代、一个城市拥挤喧嚣、充满躁动不息的蓬勃生机的时代，正蓄势待发，即将登上历史舞台。而李，则仿佛是手持长矛、头顶丝绸旗帜飘扬，从古老的骑士时代策马而来。他们各自都是其事业的完美捍卫者，其力量与弱点皆源于他们所领导的人民。
Yet it was not all contrast, after all. Different as they were—in background, in personality, in underlying aspiration—these two great soldiers had much in common. Under everything else, they were marvelous fighters. Furthermore, their fighting qualities were really very much alike.
然而，归根结底，他们之间并非全然只有差异。尽管这两位伟大的军人在背景、个性乃至深层抱负上各不相同，却拥有诸多共同之处。抛开其他一切不谈，他们都是杰出的战士。不仅如此，他们的战斗特质也惊人地相似。
Each man had, to begin with, the great virtue of utter tenacity and fidelity. Grant fought his way down the Mississippi Valley in spite of acute personal discouragement and profound military handicaps³³. Lee hung on in the trenches at Petersburg³⁴ after hope itself had died. In each man there was an indomitable quality... the born fighter's refusal to give up as long as he can still remain on his feet and lift his two fists.
首先，两人都具备全然的坚韧不拔与忠诚不渝的卓越品格。格兰特在遭遇极度个人挫败与巨大军事困境的情况下，依然奋力打通了密西西比河谷。当希望本身都已破灭之后，李依然坚守在彼得斯堡的战壕之中。他们每个人身上都有一种不屈不挠的特质……那是天生的斗士，只要尚能屹立不倒、举起双拳，便绝不言弃的精神。
Daring and resourcefulness they had, too; the ability to think faster and move faster than the enemy. These were the qualities which gave Lee the dazzling campaigns of Second Manassas and Chancellorsville³⁵ and won Vicksburg³⁶ for Grant.
他们同样拥有胆识与智谋；那种比敌人思虑更敏捷、行动更迅速的能力。正是这些品质，成就了李在第二次马纳萨斯战役和钱斯勒斯维尔战役中的辉煌胜利，也为格兰特赢得了维克斯堡大捷。
Lastly, and perhaps greatest of all, there was the ability, at the end, to turn quickly from war to peace once the fighting was over. Out of the way these two men behaved at Appomattox came the possibility of a peace of reconciliation. It was a possibility not wholly realized, in the years to come, but which did, in the end, help the two sections to become one nation again... after a war whose bitterness might have seemed to make such a reunion wholly impossible. No part of either man's life became him more than³⁷ the part he played in this brief meeting in the McLean house³⁸ at Appomattox. Their behavior there put all succeeding generations of Americans in their debt³⁹. Two great Americans, Grant and Lee—very different, yet under everything very much alike. Their encounter at Appomattox was one of the great moments of American history.
最后，或许也是最伟大的一点，是他们在战事终了之际，能够迅速从战争转向和平的胸怀与能力。正是这两位在阿波马托克斯的言行举止，催生了和解性和平的可能。这种可能性在后来的岁月里并未完全实现，但最终确实帮助南北双方重新融合成一个国家……尽管这场战争的苦涩似乎曾让这种团圆变得全然无望。在他们的一生中，没有哪个时刻比他们在阿波马托克斯麦克莱恩宅邸那场短暂会晤中所扮演的角色更为光彩照人。他们在彼时彼地的所作所为，让后世所有美国人都对他们深怀感念。两位伟大的美国人，格兰特与李——如此不同，却又在本质上如此相似。他们在阿波马托克斯的相会，是美国历史上一个伟大的瞬间。
Summary&Mindmap
English Summary This passage describes the historic meeting between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, marking the virtual end of the American Civil War. It portrays them as embodiments of two conflicting American ideals: Lee representing the aristocratic, tradition-bound South, rooted in landed gentry and a hierarchical society, and Grant symbolizing the dynamic, egalitarian, and nationally-minded West, driven by self-reliance and future-oriented expansion. While highlighting their stark differences in background and philosophy, the text also emphasizes their shared qualities as formidable military leaders—tenacity, daring, and resourcefulness—and, crucially, their ability to facilitate a peace of reconciliation, making their encounter a pivotal moment in American history.
中文概括 本文描述了格兰特与李将军在阿波马托克斯的历史性会面，标志着美国内战的实际结束。文章将二人塑造为两种冲突的美国理想的化身：李代表着贵族化、受传统束缚、植根于土地士绅和等级社会的南方；而格兰特则象征着充满活力、平等主义、具有国家意识、并由自力更生和面向未来的扩张所驱动的西部。在强调他们背景与理念的巨大差异的同时，文章也指出了他们作为卓越军事将领的共同特质——坚韧、果敢、足智多谋，以及至关重要的，他们促成和解和平的能力，使这次会面成为美国历史的关键时刻。
Analysis
"It would bring forth (according to this ideal) a class of men with a strong sense of obligation to the community; men who lived not to gain advantage for themselves, but to meet the solemn obligations which had been laid on them by the very fact that they were privileged."
- 中文解释：这句话描述了李所代表的南方贵族理想所期望塑造出的一类人。
- 结构分析：主句是 "It would bring forth a class of men..."，其中 "It" 指代前文提到的“旧式贵族概念”（the old aristocratic concept）或以此为基础的社会理想。括号里的 "(according to this ideal)" 是插入语，点明这是该理想的设想。分号后的 "men who lived..." 是对 "a class of men" 的进一步解释和修饰，使用了两个并列的由 "who" 引导的定语从句（实际上是 "who lived not... but to meet..." 结构，强调后者）。
- 难点解析：
- "bring forth"：产生，培养出。
- "a strong sense of obligation to the community"：对社区（社会）的强烈责任感。
- "solemn obligations"：庄严的、郑重的责任/义务。
- "which had been laid on them by the very fact that they were privileged"：这层修饰说明这些义务的来源——恰恰是（by the very fact that）因为他们拥有特权。这里的 "laid on them" 意为“赋予他们的，加在他们身上的”。
- 整句大意：这种（贵族）理想会培养出这样一类人：他们对社会怀有强烈的责任感；他们活着不是为了给自己谋取利益，而是为了履行那些因其特权身份而天然赋予他们的庄严义务。这句话描绘了一种“权责对等”的精英阶层理想。
- 中文解释：这句话描述了李所代表的南方贵族理想所期望塑造出的一类人。
"Thousands of tired, underfed, poorly clothed Confederate soldiers, long since past the simple enthusiasm of the early days of the struggle, somehow considered Lee the symbol of everything for which they had been willing to die."
- 中文解释：这句话描绘了南方邦联士兵在战争末期对李将军的深厚情感和高度认同。
- 结构分析：主语是 "Thousands of tired, underfed, poorly clothed Confederate soldiers"，后面跟着一个修饰主语的状语短语 "long since past the simple enthusiasm of the early days of the struggle"。谓语是 "considered"，宾语是 "Lee"，宾语补足语是 "the symbol of everything for which they had been willing to die"。
- 难点解析：
- "long since past the simple enthusiasm of the early days of the struggle"：这是一个时间状语，修饰士兵的状态。意思是“早已没有了（或早已过了）斗争初期那种单纯的热情”。"long since" 意为“很久以前，早已”。
- "somehow"：不知怎地，以某种方式。表达了一种难以言喻但确实存在的情感。
- "the symbol of everything for which they had been willing to die"：“他们愿意为之牺牲的一切的象征”。"for which" 引导定语从句修饰 "everything"。
- 整句大意：数千名疲惫不堪、食不果腹、衣衫褴褛的邦联士兵，早已没有了战争初期那种单纯的激情，但他们不知怎地仍然将李将军视为他们愿意为之献出生命的一切事物的象征。
- 中文解释：这句话描绘了南方邦联士兵在战争末期对李将军的深厚情感和高度认同。
"He was one of a body of men who owed reverence and obeisance to no one, who were self-reliant to a fault, who cared hardly anything for the past but who had a sharp eye for the future."
- 中文解释：这句话描述了格兰特所代表的那类西部边疆人的典型特征。
- 结构分析：主句是 "He was one of a body of men"。后面跟着三个由 "who" 引导的并列的定语从句，共同修饰 "men"。
- 难点解析：
- "a body of men"：一群人，一类人。
- "owed reverence and obeisance to no one"："reverence" 指崇敬，"obeisance" 指顺从、效忠。这句话意为“他们不向任何人表示崇敬和顺从”，强调其独立不羁。
- "self-reliant to a fault"："self-reliant" 指自力更生。"to a fault" 是一个习语，意为“过度地，到了几乎成为缺点的地步”。形容他们极度独立，甚至可能因此显得固执或不愿接受帮助。
- "cared hardly anything for the past"：几乎不关心过去，不注重传统。
- "had a sharp eye for the future"：对未来有敏锐的洞察力，着眼于未来。
- 整句大意：他是这样一群人中的一员：他们不向任何人表示崇敬和顺从，他们自力更生到近乎固执的程度，他们几乎不关心过去，但对未来却有敏锐的洞察力。
- 中文解释：这句话描述了格兰特所代表的那类西部边疆人的典型特征。
"Back of them, in the great surge that had taken people over the Alleghenies and into the opening Western country, there was a deep, implicit dissatisfaction with a past that had settled into grooves."
- 中文解释：这句话解释了西部拓荒者精神产生的深层社会和历史根源。
- 结构分析：这是一个倒装句，正常语序是 "A deep, implicit dissatisfaction... was there back of them..."。 "Back of them" 指“在他们（西部人）的背后”，引申为驱动他们的原因或他们的来源。中间的 "in the great surge..." 是一个较长的介词短语作地点/背景状语。
- 难点解析：
- "Back of them"：在他们背后，作为他们的背景或驱动力。
- "the great surge"：巨大的浪潮，指西部大迁徙。
- "opening Western country"：不断开放和开发的西部土地。
- "implicit dissatisfaction"：潜在的、不言而喻的不满。
- "a past that had settled into grooves"：一个已经凝固僵化、墨守成规的过去。"Grooves" 原指车辙、凹槽，这里比喻刻板的常规、一成不变的模式。这是一个生动的隐喻。
- 整句大意：在他们（西部人）的身后，在那股曾将人们带过阿勒格尼山脉进入新兴西部地区的巨大浪潮之中，存在着一种对那已经陷入窠臼、一成不变的过去的深层而潜在的不满。
- 中文解释：这句话解释了西部拓荒者精神产生的深层社会和历史根源。
"He had, in other words, an acute dollars-and-cents stake in the continued growth and development of his country."
- 中文解释：这句话点明了西部人对国家统一和发展的实际利益驱动。
- 结构分析：主句是 "He had a stake..."。"in other words" 是插入语，起解释说明作用。
- 难点解析：
- "acute"：敏锐的，强烈的，深刻的。
- "dollars-and-cents stake"：这是一个固定搭配，强调“金钱上的、实际经济利益上的利害关系”。"Dollars-and-cents" 指具体的金钱利益，"stake" 指投入的利益、股份或利害关系。
- 整句大意：换句话说，他（西部人）在自己国家的持续增长和发展中，有着非常直接而重大的经济利益。
- 中文解释：这句话点明了西部人对国家统一和发展的实际利益驱动。
"No part of either man's life became him more than the part he played in this brief meeting in the McLean house at Appomattox."
- 中文解释：这句话高度评价了格兰特和李在阿波马托克斯会面时的行为及其历史意义，认为这是他们人生中最光辉的时刻。
- 结构分析：这是一个比较结构 "No X ... more than Y"，强调 Y 的极致性。
- 难点解析：
- "became him" (动词原形 become)：这里的 "become" 是一个相对不常用的词义，意为“适合（某人），使（某人）增色，与（某人身份、品格）相称”。例如 "That dress becomes her" (那件连衣裙很配她)。
- "the part he played"：他们所扮演的角色，指他们在这次会面中的行为举止和所作所为。
- 整句大意：他们俩（格兰特和李）一生中没有任何其他片段，比他们在阿波马托克斯麦克莱恩宅邸那次短暂会面中所扮演的角色（所展现的行为），更能彰显他们的风采（或更能为他们的人生增添光彩/更适合他们的身份）。这句话意味着他们在这一刻的表现达到了他们人生的顶峰，是最值得称颂的。
- 中文解释：这句话高度评价了格兰特和李在阿波马托克斯会面时的行为及其历史意义，认为这是他们人生中最光辉的时刻。