天鹅的临终之歌
1854年，美国第14任总统写信给西雅图，要以15万美元的价格买下印第安部落脚下的8000平方千米的土地。当时，白人与印第安的战争已经接近尾声。
1855年12月，西雅图酋长坐在白人安排的会议桌旁边，面对1000多人，发表了这段被后人称作“天鹅的临终之歌”的演说。
The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. Buthow can you buy or sell the sky? the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do notown the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
华盛顿特区的总统来信说他想要收买我们的土地。但是，天空和大地何时变成了买卖的商品？这个想法对我们来讲很陌生。如果我们不拥有这清新的空气和晶莹的流水，你们如何去购买呢？
Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect.All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.
这里的每一寸土地对我们来说都是神圣的。每一根闪闪发亮的松针，每一处沙滩海岸，每一团茂密森林中的雾霭，每一亩草场牧地，每一只嗡嗡吟唱的昆虫…… 它们都是圣洁的，深藏在我们的回忆里，印刻在我和我的人民的生命中。
We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man all belong to the same family.
树汁流经树干，就如同血液流经我们的血管一样。我们是这土地的一部分，它也是我们的一部分。芬芳的花朵是我们的姐妹，麋鹿、骏马、雄鹰是我们的兄弟。 我们头顶的巍峨山脉，脚下的盈盈露珠和游走在我们身边的那些温热的小马驹，万物共属于一个家园。
The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ncestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred.Each glossy reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.
溪流河川中闪闪发光的不仅仅是水，也是我们祖先的血液。那清澈湖水中的每一个倒影，反映了我们的经历和记忆；那潺潺的流水声，回荡着我们祖辈的亲切呼唤。
The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother.
河水为我们解除干渴，滋润我们的心田。河水运载我们的木舟，养育我们的子子孙孙。你们应该像善待自己的兄弟那样，善待我们的河水。
If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life that it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers.
如果我们卖给给你们这片土地，记住：这里的空气神圣的，因为它与所滋养的生命是一体的。清风给了我们的祖先第一口呼吸，也送走了祖先的最后一声叹息。同样，空气也会给我们的子孙和所有的生物以生命。你们要照管好它，使你们也能够品尝风经过草地后的甜美味道。
Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.
你们会像我们教导自己的孩子那样，告诉你们的孩子：大地是我们的母亲吗？任何降临在大地上的事，终究会降临在大地的孩子身上。
This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
我们深知：大地不属于人类，而人类是属于大地的。我们懂得，自然万物息息相关不可分割，如同血脉将人类紧紧相连。人类没有编织生命的脉络，只是这脉络中的一缕青丝。我们对生命脉络所作出的一切，最终都会回馈给我们自己。
One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.
我们明白，我们的上帝也是你们的上帝。这片土地是上帝赠予我们的礼物，任何伤害这片土地的行为都是对造物主的亵渎。
Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted with talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone. Where will the eagle be? Gone. And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt? The end
of living and the beginning of survival.
你们的命运对我们来讲是一个谜。当野牛都被屠杀，野马都被驯化的时候，会发生什么？当冰冷的城市森林驱赶了最后一颗大树，当密集的电线占领了昔日幽静无人的山谷，那是一种怎么样的景象？丛林在哪里？消失了。
老鹰在哪里？绝迹了。骑马狩猎的生活将一去不复返，生活走向了尽头预示着，人类文明的苟延残喘。
When the last red man has vanished with this wilderness, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?
当最后一个印第安人消失于这无边的旷野，天边那一抹浮云掠过草原投下的影子将成为他最后的记忆。到了那个时候，这些海岸和森林还依然在这里吗？我和我的人民的灵魂还会留存在这片土地上吗？
We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it, as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land, as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children, and love it, as God loves us.
我们深爱这片土地，如同新生的婴儿眷恋来自母亲胸膛的庇护与温暖。如果我们放弃这片土地，把它交给你们，请像我们一样热爱它，照管它。为了子孙后代，你们要献出全部的力量和情感来保护这块大地。珍爱这片土地，如同上帝用无尽的恩慈保佑我们世人。
As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you.
我们是这土地不可分割的一部分，你们也一样。这土地对我们来说何其珍贵，对你们来说也同样如此。
One thing we know - there is only one God. No man, be he Red man or White, can be apart. We are all brothers after all.
我们深信，人类拥有同一个上帝。不论印第安人还是白人，我们共享这个世界，如同血脉相连的兄弟姐妹一般相亲相爱不可分离。
