A Civil War History Lesson On Trump's Visit To Gettysburg

October 23, 2016 3:49 PM ET

NPR

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Over the weekend, Republican Donald Trump and his campaign invoked historic metaphors[1] in stops at Civil War[南北战争;美国内战] battlefields over the weekend. That could be a useful lens[2], as NPR's Sarah McCammon reports.

SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: As Donald Trump laid out[布局;设计;规划;安排] his closing pitch[3] to voters in the key state of Pennsylvania[宾夕法尼亚州], what better setting than an actual battleground?

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DONALD TRUMP: It's my privilege to be here in Gettysburg[葛底斯堡], hallowed ground[圣地], where so many lives were given.

MCCAMMON: Trump reiterated[重申] the major themes of his campaign, like cracking down on illegal immigration[打击非法移民]. He also promised to sue women who've come forward to accuse him of unwanted sexual contact[起诉每个指控他性骚扰的女性]. But first, he drew a parallel[类比;比拟] to the state of the nation during the Civil War.

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TRUMP: President Lincoln served in a time of division like we've never seen before. It is my hope that we can look at his example to heal the divisions we are living through right now.

MCCAMMON: Afterward, Trump visited the site of Pickett's Charge[皮克特冲锋]*, a failed Confederate assault on the Union on the last day of the Battle at Gettysburg[葛底斯堡战役]. Ahead of Trump's next stop at the conservative Christian Regent University[瑞金大学] in Virginia Beach[4], another Civil War battle came to mind.

*皮克特冲锋为美国南北战争期间，葛底斯堡战役的最后一天（1863年7月3日），南方联盟军罗伯特·李将军下令向墓地岭（Cemetery Ridge）的北方联邦军乔治·米德少将所发动的一次步兵攻击。

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FRANK WAGNER: A-hundred-and-sixty-two years ago, in a place called the Wilderness[荒野] right here in Virginia[弗吉尼亚州]...

MCCAMMON: State Senator Frank Wagner told the large open-air crowd about a battle where the Confederate general refused to give up.

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WAGNER: The entire center or the rebel line was collapsing. Lee saw it. He ran to the sound of the gunfire.

MCCAMMON: We were in a war, Wagner said. And it's time to take the country back by getting out the vote for Trump.

JOHN FEA: That's an amazing metaphor, isn't it?

MCCAMMON: That's John Fea, a history professor at Messiah College[弥赛亚学院] in Grantham, Pa. He was attending a conference for Christian historians on the Regent campus. Fea noted that Pickett's Charge, a last-ditch[5] effort at the end of a losing battle, could be seen as an unfortunate symbolic choice.

FEA: It was a big-time[有名的;成功的] slaughter, but that was their only chance of getting out of Gettysburg alive with a victory. And that's pretty much what Trump's trying to do right now, right?

MCCAMMON: Whatever the outcome of the battle that will end on Election Day, Fea says he wonders about the direction of the civil war within the Republican Party that will rage on[激烈进行;白热化;上演]. Sarah McCammon, NPR News, Virginia Beach.

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[1]metaphor [ˈmetəfə(r)]

an expression, often found in literature, that describes a person or object by referring to something that is considered to have similar characteristics to that person or object 隐喻；暗喻

"The mind is an ocean" and "the city is a jungle" are both metaphors.

「思维是海洋」和「城市是丛林」都是隐喻。

Metaphor and simile are the most commonly used figures of speech in everyday language.

隐喻和明喻是日常语言中最常用的修辞手法。

[2]lens：镜片，镜头，透镜

[3]pitch：a speech or act that attempts to persuade someone to buy or do something 推销用语；推销

The man in the shop gave me his (sales) pitch about quality and reliability.

商店里的那个男人对我大谈质量上乘信誉可靠之类的推销行话。

She made a pitch for the job but she didn't get it.

她竭力争取这份工作，但却未得到。

The city made a pitch to stage the Olympics.

该市竭力争取主办奥运会。

[4]瑞金大学是一所位于美国弗吉尼亚州弗吉尼亚海滩的基督教私立研究型大学。

[5]last-ditch：an effort or attempt that is made at the end of a series of failures to solve a problem, and is not expected to succeed 最后一招，最后一根救命稻草；孤注一掷

He resigned in a last-ditch attempt to save his party from electoral defeat.

为了避免他所在的政党在大选中失利，他使出了最后一招——辞去了领导职务。

[6]相关背景：

距美国大选投票日17天之际，共和党总统候选人唐纳德·特朗普周六（10月22日）在美东宾夕法尼亚州葛底斯堡发表政策宣讲，陈述他若当选，就任百日之内准备用什么新政来“颠覆旧建制”。

宾夕法尼亚州历来是白宫争夺战的主战场之一。美国第16任总统林肯1863年11月9日在葛底斯堡国家公墓发表了被后人引用最多的演说。

特朗普说，之所以选择在这个地方发表他迄今为止最重要的演讲，就是希望由此凸显他要传递讯息，他称其反建制内涵与当年林肯演讲的核心是一脉相承的。他说，“希拉里?克林顿不是在跟我竞争，而是在跟变化竞争。”

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