Letter to Mrs. Bixby
致比克斯比夫人的信
- Mrs. Bixby 一位美国妇女。她的五个儿子都在南北战争中光荣牺牲，林肯总统知道这事后，就写了这封信去慰问她
Executive Mansion,
总统府
- Executive Mansion 美国总统府，现在叫白宫（White House）
Washington,
华盛顿
Nov. 21, 1864
一八六四年十一月二十一日
Mrs. Bixby,
比克斯比夫人
Boston, Massachusetts,
马萨诸塞州，波士顿
Dear Madam,
亲爱的夫人：
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
在送我批阅的陆军部档案中，我看到一份马萨诸塞州陆军副官长写的报告，说您便是有五个儿子光荣牺牲在战场上的那位母亲。我深深感到，无论我用什么言词，企图来排遣如此巨大的损失给您带来的悲痛，都一定是无力和徒劳的。但我还是抑制不住要向您表示慰问，这种慰问体现在您的儿子们献身拯救的共和国对您的感谢之中。我祈求我们的天父减轻您的丧子之痛，使您只怀有对于已故亲人的美好回忆和庄严的自豪感，您有这种自豪感是理所当然的，因为您在自由的祭坛上献出了代价如此昂贵的牺牲。
- assuage 表示“缓和、缓解、减轻、平息”，常作正式用语使用，侧重指通过施加某种可以软化、安抚或使变温和的影响来减轻痛苦、悲伤、忧虑、恐惧等不愉快感觉的强度，使人安静下来并平息强烈的情绪（参见：小词详解 | assuage）
Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
谨致问候，
Abraham Lincoln
亚伯拉罕·林肯
