他在我们的海域大肆掠夺,蹂躏我们沿海地区,焚烧我们的城镇,残害我们人民的生命。
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
他此时正在运送大批外国佣兵来完成屠杀、破坏和肆虐的老勾当,这种勾当早就开始,其残酷卑劣甚至在最野蛮的时代都难以找到先例。他完全不配作为一个文明国家的元首。
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
他在公海上俘虏我们的同胞,强迫他们拿起武器来反对自己的国家,成为残杀自己亲人和朋友的刽子手,或是死于自己的亲人和朋友的手下。
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, es and conditions.
他在我们中间煽动内乱,并且竭力挑唆那些残酷无情、没有开化的印第安人来杀掠我们边疆的居民;而众所周知,印第安人的作战律令是不分男女老幼,一律格杀勿论的。
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
在这些压迫的每一阶段中,我们都是用最谦卑的言辞请愿改善;但屡次请求所得到的答复是屡次遭受损害。一个君主,当他的品格已打上了暴君行为的烙印时,是不配作自由人民的统治者的。
Nor have We been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpation, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
我们不是没有注意我们英国的弟兄。我们时常提醒他们,他们的立法机关企图把无理的管辖权横加到我们的头上。我们也曾把我们移民出这里和在这里定居的情形告诉他们。我们曾经向他们天生的正义感和雅量呼吁,我们恳求他们念在同种同宗的份上,弃绝这些掠夺行为,以免影响彼此的关系和往来。但是他们却对于这种正义和血缘的呼声一直充耳不闻。因此,我们实在不得不宣布和他们脱离,并且以对待世界上其它民族一样的态度对待他们:战即为敌;和则为友。