英语名篇背诵:　The Tribute 悼词

英语背诵名篇:　The Tribute 悼词

I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning, before a world in shock. We are all united, not only in our desire to pay our respects to Diana, but rather in our need to do so. For such was her extraordinary appeal that the tens of millions of people taking part in this service all over the world via television and radio who never actually met her, feel that they, too, lost someone close to them in the early hours of Sunday morning. It is a more remarkable tribute to Diana than I can ever hope to offer her today.

Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity.

A standard bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.

Today is our chance to say thank you for the way you brightened our lives, even though God granted you but half a life. We will all feel cheated always that you were taken from us so young, and yet we must learn to be grateful that you came along at all. Only now you are gone do we truly appreciate what we are now without and we want you to know that life without you is very, very difficult. We have all despaired at our loss over the past week and only the strength of the message you gave us through your years of giving has afforded us the strength to move forward.

There is a temptation to rush to canonize your memory, there is no need to do so. You stand tall enough as a human being of unique qualities not need to be seen as a saint. Indeed, to sanctify your memory would be to miss out on the very core of your being, your wonderfully mischievous sense of humour with a laugh that bent you double. Your joy for life, transmitted wherever you took your smile, and the sparkle in those unforgettable eyes. Your boundless energy, which you could barely contain. But your greatest gift was your intuition and it was a gift you used wisely. This is what underpinned all your other wonderful attributes and if we look to analyse what it was about you that had such a wide appeal we find it in your instinctive feel for what was really important in all our lives.

Without your God-given sensitivity we would be immersed in greater ignorance at the anguish of Aids and HIV sufferers, the plight of the homeless, the isolation of lepers, the random destruction of landmines. Diana explained to me once that it was her innermost feelings of suffering that made it possible for her to connect with her constituency of the rejected. And here we come to another truth about her. For all the status, the glamour, the applause, Diana remained throughout a very insecure person at heart, almost childlike in her desire to do good for others so she could release herself from deep feelings of unworthiness of which her eating disorders were merely a symptom. The world sensed this part of her character and cherished her for her vulnerability whilst admiring her for her honesty.

Last time I saw Diana was on July 1, her birthday, in London, when typically she was not taking time to celebrate her special day with friends but was guest of honour at a fundraising charity evening. She sparkled, of course, but I would rather cherish the days I spent with her in March when she came to visit me and my children in our home in South Africa. I am proud of the fact apart from when she was on public display meeting President Mandela we managed to contrive to stop the ever-present paparazzi from getting a single picture of her—that meant a lot to her.

These were days I will always treasure. It was as if we had been transported back to our childhood when we spent such an enormous amount of time together—the two youngest in the family. Fundamentally, she had not changed at all from the big sister who mothered me as a baby, fought with me at school and endured those long train journeys between our parents' homes with me at weekends. It is a tribute to her level—headedness and strength that despite the most bizarre life imaginable after her childhood, she remained intact, true to herself.

There is no doubt that she was looking for a new direction in her life at this time. She talked endlessly of getting away from England, mainly because of the treatment that she received at the hands of the newspapers. I don't think she ever understood why her genuinely good intentions were sneered at by the media, why there appeared to be a permanent quest on their behalf to bring her down. It is baffling. My own and only explanation is that genuine goodness is threatening to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum. It is a point to remember that of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this—a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age.

She would want us today to pledge ourselves to protecting her beloved boys William and Harry from a similar fate and I do this here Diana on your behalf. We will not allow them to suffer the anguish that used regularly to drive you to tearful despair. And beyond that, on behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative and loving way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.

We fully respect the heritage into which they have both been born and will always respect and encourage them in their royal role but we, like you, recognise the need for them to experience as many different aspects of life as possible to arm them spiritually and emotionally for the years ahead. I know you would have expected nothing less from us. William and Harry, we all care desperately for you today. We are all chewed up with the sadness at the loss of a woman who was not even our mother. How great your suffering is, we cannot even imagine.

I would like to end by thanking God for the small mercies he has shown us at this dreadful time, for taking Diana at her most beautiful and radiant and when she had joy in her private life. Above all we give thanks for the life of a woman I am so proud to be able to call my sister, the unique, the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana whose beauty, both internal and external, will never be extinguished from our minds.

By Earl Spencer

［参考译文］

悼词

斯宾赛伯爵

今天我站在你面前，代表悲恸的家族，代表哀伤的国家，面对震惊的世界。我们所有人团结在一起，不仅仅因为希望向黛安娜表达我们的敬意，而且因为我们希望如此。因为她具有的超凡气质，世界上数以百万人通过电视、广播参加了葬礼，他们虽然实际上从未亲眼见过她，但是也感觉到星期天清晨失去了一位亲密的朋友。今天我希望向黛安娜致以最刻骨铭心的悼词。

黛安娜是爱心、责任、风度和美丽的化身。她是世界上无私人类的代表。

时刻考虑着世界上真正被压制的人群的权利，一位真正超越国籍的英国女性。她具有与生俱来的高贵气质，不受阶级限制，在生命的最后阶段证明她不需要皇家头衔延续特有的魅力。

今天我们有机会向你表达谢意，是你照亮我们的生活，即使上帝仅仅赐予你半生日光。你英年早逝，我们将永远感觉受到了欺骗，但是我们会永远保持一颗感恩的心，毕竟你来过人间。直到现在你远离我们而去，我们才真正明白你的可贵，我们想让你知道，没有你的日子非常非常难熬。过去的一个星期，我们都为你的离去感到绝望，只有你多年来的付出向我们传达的信息具有的力量赋予我们前进的勇气。

有人企图把你圣化，让人永远将你铭记在心，根本没有必要这样做。你拥有与众不同的品质，高高在上，不需要被人视为圣人。的确，把你封为圣徒就会丧失你生存的本质，丧失为你增添淘气幽默本性的微笑。你乐观地对待生活，无论身在何处都面带笑容，令人难忘的双眼都炯炯有神，向人传达快乐的信息。你浑身洋溢着无限活力。但是你最伟大的天赋是你的直觉，你聪明地运用自己的直觉。而这巩固了你其他的优秀特性，如果我们要分析你为何具有这么强大的魅力，我们发现你的天性是我们生活中真正举足轻重的。

如果不是你具有上天赐予的感性，我们仍然会对艾滋病患者的痛苦熟视无睹，漠视无家可归的人的困境，麻风病人的孤独以及随时爆炸伤人的地雷。黛安娜曾经向我解释，是她内心深处的痛苦感受使得她不断地与被遗弃的人保持联系。在此，我们来认识她真实的另一面。对于所有地位、魅力、掌声，黛安娜自始至终内心都感到没有安全感，几乎像个孩子一样渴望为他人做善事，这样她就能从深深的无法体现自身价值的痛苦中解脱出来，她饮食混乱仅仅是个征兆。全世界感受到了她的一部分性格，在崇拜她的诚实的同时因为她的脆弱而对她倍加珍惜。

我最后一次见黛安娜是7月1日在伦敦，那天是她的生日，她并没有花时间与朋友一起庆祝，而是作为特邀嘉宾出席一个筹款慈善晚会。当然，她光芒四射，但是我更珍惜3月与她共度的时光，她来到我在南非的家，看望我和我的孩子们。除了她在公共场合露面会见曼德拉总统，我们成功地阻止了无处不在的狗仔队，使他们偷拍的计划没有得逞——这对她而言，意义重大，我为此深感自豪。

我将一直珍藏这些时光。这让我仿佛又回到了我们一起共度的童年时代——我们两个是家中最小的。她根本没有改变，还是那个大姐姐，像母亲一样把我当小孩看，在学校和我打架，不辞辛苦地从相隔遥远的父母家中乘火车来陪我度周末。哀悼她的冷静和勇气，尽管她成年之后的生活丰富多彩，但是她丝毫未变，仍然保持本色。

毫无疑问，她那时在寻找生活的新方向。她不停地谈起要离开英格兰，主要是因为媒体对她的待遇。我认为她并不了解她的良好意愿遭受媒体蔑视的原因，不知道为什么媒体一直穷追不舍要把她击倒。这真是难以理解。我自己所能想起的唯一的解释就是她的真心对那些超越道德范围的人构成了威胁。有关黛安娜的所有讽刺中有一个值得记住，也许是最精辟的一个——一位以古代狩猎女神命名的女孩，最后却成为现代社会不断遭受追踪的人。

今天她希望我们发誓保护她亲爱的儿子威廉和哈里不要经历同样的命运，黛安娜，我代表你在这发誓。我们不会让他们遭受过去常常让你伤心绝望的痛苦。此外，我代表你的母亲和姐妹发誓，我们，你的血缘家族，将竭尽所能延续你充满想象而又富有慈爱的方法，教导这两个不同寻常的年轻人，这样他们的心灵就不会单纯地深陷在责任和传统中，还会如你计划的那样自由地歌唱。

我们完全尊重他们与生俱来继承的传统，并且将尊敬他们，鼓励他们履行自己的皇家使命，但是我们像你一样需要他们体验生活的各个方面，尽可能地丰富他们以后的精神生活和情感生活。我知道你对我们就这些要求。威廉、哈里，今天我们所有人都非常担心你们。一位甚至不是我们母亲的女人的离世都令我们伤痛欲绝。你们会是多么悲恸，我甚至无法想象。

最后，我要感谢上帝在那个可怕的时刻为我们显示的微弱的仁慈，当黛安娜最美丽、最容光焕发的时候，当她在享受私人美好生活的时候，将她带走。总之，我要感谢我引以为荣地称之为姐姐的这位女性的一生，独树一帜、丰富多彩、出色非凡、无可替代的黛安娜，她内外兼具的美将永远驻留在我们的心中。

［注释］

a standard bearer : 倡导者，领导者，旗手

the downtrodden : 被践踏、被压迫的人们

a laugh that bent you double : 让你笑得前仰后合

This is what underpinned all your other wonderful attributes : 这是你其他优秀品质的基础

release herself from deep feelings of unworthiness of which her eating disorders were merely a symptom : 使自己从深深的自卑感中解脱出来，而她饮食方面的紊乱正是这种自卑感的表现

-canonize [ˈkænənaɪz] v. 封……为圣徒，使加入圣徒之列，褒扬，推崇

-paparazzi [ˈpɑːpɑˈ:rɑːtsɪ] n. （靠收集名人消息并向媒体出售牟利的）狗仔队

genuine goodness is threatening to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum : 真正的善意对站在道德立场对立面的那些人构成了威胁

Diana : 黛安娜，古罗马神话中处女性守护神，狩猎女神和月亮女神，相当于希腊神话中的阿耳忒弥斯（Artemis）

［背景导读］

戴安娜王妃（Diana, 1961-1997），1981年7月29日，戴安娜与威尔士亲王查尔斯在伦敦圣保罗教堂隆重举行婚礼。他们的婚礼，在当时被认为是灰姑娘的童话。她嫁入王室后曾积极从事慈善事业，举办拍卖会，捐赠善款。她还试图提高人们对贫穷、吸毒、流浪等的关注。1996年，王子与公主的童话破灭，戴安娜与查尔斯解除婚约，戴安娜获准保留“威尔士王妃”的头衔。1997年8月31日因车祸死于法国巴黎。