我們為什么要紀念一戰?

In July 2014 the world will mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. Why should we remember? Why should we stop and think about those events that happened so long ago?

By the end of the First World War there were very few people in the countries that took part who remained unaffected. The war reached out and touched almost everyone's life in some way or other.

Children grew up in the shadow of battle， their fathers absent or lost. Women became directly involved， picking up the pieces of industry and agriculture as the men went off to fight. By 1918， they too could join the army and serve their country.

Men enlisted1)， or were called up2)， in their millions， being sent to fight in places that many had never heard of before. It was a global struggle. Life changed forever. Nothing was ever the same again.

In the opening moves of the war， both in the West and the East， the nature of modern warfare soon became clear. Armies numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Modern weapons rapidly caused heavy casualties3) and laid waste to4) whole communities. Soldiers went to ground， digging trenches5) and dugouts6) that soon began to feel almost permanent.

The crucible7) of war also proved very creative. Aircraft developed quickly， taking death and destruction into the sky. New ways of fighting made better and more effective use of huge quantities of shells8) and bullets manufactured on a scale never seen before.

The power unleashed9) by modern war resulted in previously unimagined losses. Over 9 million soldiers died as a result of the fighting. Food shortages， sometimes deliberately inflicted10) by blockade11) and sometimes resulting from failed harvests， weakened the people who remained on the home fronts12). Nearly 6 million civilians died from disease or starvation. Almost 1 million more were killed as a direct result of military operations. In all， the estimate of dead resulting from the war stands13) at over 16 million.

And then there were the wounded. More than 21 million. Some recovered. Others were never the same again， either in body or in mind.

2014年7月(編注：本文寫于2014年4月)，世界將迎來第一次世界大戰爆發100周年紀念日。我們為什么要記住這場戰爭？為什么要停下來思考很久以前發生的那些重大事件？

一戰結束時，參戰國家中戰爭未波及的人寥寥無幾。戰爭四處蔓延，以各種方式影響了幾乎所有人的生活。

孩子們在戰爭的陰影中成長，他們的父親要么不在身邊，要么已經陣亡。女人們被直接卷入了戰爭，在男人們離家參戰后開始做工、干農活。到1918年，她們也可以參軍為國家效力了。

數百萬的男人們主動參軍或被征召入伍，被派往許多人之前從未聽說過的地方打仗。這是一場全球性的戰爭，人們的生活永遠改變了，一切都不再是原來的樣子了。

在最初的戰爭行動中，無論是在西線還是在東線，現代戰爭的本質很快就顯露無遺。各國的軍隊都有數十萬之眾。現代武器迅速造成了人員的大量傷亡，并使得居民區整片淪為廢墟。士兵們轉戰地下，開始挖戰壕和地下掩體，很快，這些地下工事開始讓人感覺幾乎成了永久性設施。

戰爭的嚴峻考驗所帶來的新事物也極具創造性。飛機發展迅速，將死亡和毀滅延伸到了空中。新的戰爭手段使數量巨大的槍支彈藥發揮出了更好、更有效的作用，而這些槍支彈藥的生產達到了前所未有的規模。

現代戰爭所釋放出的威力造成了人們此前未曾料到的損失。超過900萬名士兵在戰斗中死去。有時因為封鎖而人為造成了食物短缺，有時由于土地歉收造成缺糧少食，這種食物匱乏損害了留在大后方的民眾的健康：近600萬平民死于疾病或饑餓，還有近100萬平民直接死于軍事行動。據估計，這場戰爭造成的死亡人數總計超過了1600萬。

此外還有那些傷員，人數超過2100萬。他們當中的一些人恢復了健康，而另一些人則不管是身體還是心靈都再也沒能復原。1.enlist [#618;n#712;l#618;st] vi. 參軍；入伍

2.call up: 征召……入伍

3.casualty [#712;k#230;#658;u#601;lti] n. 傷亡；傷亡者

4.lay waste to: 毀壞；蹂躪；使荒蕪

5.trench [trent#643;] n. 戰壕；壕溝

6.dugout [#712;d#652;ɡa#650;t] n. (士兵等挖的)地下掩體

7.crucible [#712;kru#720;s#618;bl] n. <喻>嚴峻的考驗

8.shell [#643;el] n. 炮彈

9.unleash [#652;n#712;li#720;#643;] vt. 釋放

10.inflict [#618;n#712;fl#618;kt] vt. 造成；使遭受(傷害或破壞等)

11.blockade [bl#594;#712;ke#618;d] n. 封鎖

12.home front: (戰時的)大后方

13.stand [st#230;nd] vi. (價值、水平、分數等)處于(某一數量)，是……為紀念一戰爆發100周年，英國新聞攝影師Peter Macdiarmid搜集了一戰時期的舊照片，并拍攝了照片上那些地方現在的樣子。他把一戰時的黑白照片與百年后的彩色照片重疊放置，使二者形成了鮮明的對比，給我們帶來了視覺上的沖擊。這組獨具創意的照片不僅讓我們看到了歷史變遷帶來的變化，也令人不禁感嘆和平的彌足珍貴。1914年11月，幾個小孩用紙帽子和手杖槍裝扮成士兵站在英國倫敦特拉法加廣場上，背后立著寫有“The Need for Fighting Men Is Urgent.”的征兵通知。 It was not just people who died. The old world order was also irreparably damaged. Both the Austro-Hungarian and Turkish empires were destroyed. From their ashes a host of new countries emerged， in Europe and the Middle East. Russia was wracked14) by revolution and became the world's first Communist state. Monarchies fell. A new world order emerged， with the United States developing a League of Nations that they then opted not to join. The consequences of many of these political changes can be heard today reverberating15) around the world， nearly a century later.

Millions of people across the world still feel a connection with the Great War for Civilisation16). They knew the people whose lives were changed by it. They remain moved by the enduring works of art that were created as a response to it. They live with its unresolved political legacies. The First World War created a common sense of history that， decades later， still links people from many disparate17) nations.

Sometimes the First World War feels like distant history. The jumpy18) black and white films， the unfamiliar clothes， and the horses pulling wagons， all look like something from a world long forgotten. Yet the last soldiers who fought in the war have only recently died. Only a few of the 1914~1918 generation， who witnessed the war but were too young to take part， are still alive.

The war is slipping inexorably19) beyond the fringes of living memory and， as the Centenary20) of 1914~1918 approaches， we have to work harder to make sure we do not forget. If we want to understand today， we need to know and remember what happened yesterday.戰爭帶來的不僅是人員的傷亡，舊有的世界秩序也遭到了無法彌補的破壞。奧匈帝國和土耳其帝國都在這場戰爭中被摧毀。在歐洲和中東，一批新的國家從這些帝國的灰燼中建立起來。沙俄帝國因革命(編注：指俄國二月革命)而滅亡，變成世界上第一個共產主義國家。君主制衰落了。隨著美國發起而之后選擇不加入的國際聯盟的成立，新的世界秩序形成了。在近一個世紀之后的今天，我們能聽到其中許多政治變革的余音在世間回響。

全世界有數以百萬計的人仍能感受到這場世界文明之戰和他們之間的關聯。他們認識被這場戰爭改變命運的人們，他們依然感動于受它啟發而創造的生命力持久的藝術品，他們在生活中仍要面對它遺留下來的尚未解決的政治問題。一戰建立了一種歷史通識，這種通識在數十年之后仍能把許多不同國家的人們聯系在一起。

有時，第一次世界大戰感覺像是遙遠的歷史。那些抖動的黑白影像、陌生的服飾和拉車的馬匹，看起來似乎全都屬于一個早已被遺忘的世界。然而，最后一批參加過一戰的士兵不久前才辭世。經歷過1914~1918年的那一代人中，只有少數仍然健在，他們當年目睹了戰爭，但因為太年幼而未參戰。

這場戰爭正不可阻擋地從那些活著的人們的記憶邊緣流逝。隨著1914~1918年第一次世界大戰100周年紀念的臨近，我們必須更努力地確保自己不會忘記。如果我們想理解今天，就需要了解并記住昨天發生的事。14.wrack [r#230;k] vt. 摧毀

15.reverberate [r#618;#712;v#604;#720;b#601;re#618;t] vi. (巨大聲音造成的)回響；回蕩

16.Great War for Civilisation: 指第一次世界大戰。

17.disparate [#712;d#618;sp#601;r#601;t] adj. [正式]完全不同的；迥異的

18.jumpy [#712;d#658;#652;mpi] adj. 跳躍的，跳動的

19.inexorably [#618;n#712;eks#601;r#601;bli] adv. 不可阻擋地；無情地

20.centenary [sen#712;ti#720;n#601;ri] n. 100周年紀念