I Have a Dream

——Martin Luther King, Jr.

導讀:馬丁?路德?金(1929——1968),美國黑人律師,著名黑人民權運動領袖,諾貝爾和平獎獲得者。1963年8月28日,馬丁領導的美國黑人民權運動如火如荼之時,他在首都華盛頓廣場林肯紀念堂前規(guī)模浩大的反種族歧視集會上,發(fā)表了這篇被譽為“20世紀最振奮人心的為自由民主而戰(zhàn)的檄文”的著名演講。

在該演說中,作者開門見山談及了敏感的民權問題,接著,形象地描述了黑人悲慘嚴酷的現(xiàn)實狀況,最后發(fā)表了大段的言辭把演講引入到了高潮,使在場觀眾產生共鳴。然而,接著作者卻話鋒一轉,以他仁慈的心和博大的胸懷唱起了“牧歌”。話語中的鋒芒不見了,換之以柔和的語氣,文章前后產生很大的落差。然而,作者真的能平和下來嗎?如果我們用心讀也會發(fā)現(xiàn)作者言辭間隱含著很大的無奈。也正因為無奈,作者才將現(xiàn)狀的改變托之于夢想。然后,就是那響徹世界的聲音,作者連用六個“我夢想有一天”,以詩一樣的語言和酣暢淋漓的排比句式,正面表達了對自由和平等的渴望,抒發(fā)了他作為一個黑人內心最熱烈的夢想,從而將全文推向了高潮。最后,作者喊出了“我們終于自由了!”每一個有良知的人,聽到這充滿正義、慈愛、寬恕的呼聲,都無法不動容不感懷。

他的演說話音鏗鏘,雄渾蒼涼,激昂雄辯,極具震撼人心之力,他也被譽為近百年最具說服力的演說家之一。

“我有一個夢想”現(xiàn)已成為了人類表達希冀和心愿的“保留句式”。

英音朗讀

美音朗讀

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize an shameful condition.

……

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification"--one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day--this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happen, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

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