我们为什么要纪念一战?

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(编注：本文写于2014年4月)，世界将迎来第一次世界大战爆发100周年纪念日。我们为什么要记住这场战争？为什么要停下来思考很久以前发生的那些重大事件？

一战结束时，参战国家中战争未波及的人寥寥无几。战争四处蔓延，以各种方式影响了几乎所有人的生活。

孩子们在战争的阴影中成长，他们的父亲要么不在身边，要么已经阵亡。女人们被直接卷入了战争，在男人们离家参战后开始做工、干农活。到1918年，她们也可以参军为国家效力了。

数百万的男人们主动参军或被征召入伍，被派往许多人之前从未听说过的地方打仗。这是一场全球性的战争，人们的生活永远改变了，一切都不再是原来的样子了。

在最初的战争行动中，无论是在西线还是在东线，现代战争的本质很快就显露无遗。各国的军队都有数十万之众。现代武器迅速造成了人员的大量伤亡，并使得居民区整片沦为废墟。士兵们转战地下，开始挖战壕和地下掩体，很快，这些地下工事开始让人感觉几乎成了永久性设施。

战争的严峻考验所带来的新事物也极具创造性。飞机发展迅速，将死亡和毁灭延伸到了空中。新的战争手段使数量巨大的枪支弹药发挥出了更好、更有效的作用，而这些枪支弹药的生产达到了前所未有的规模。

现代战争所释放出的威力造成了人们此前未曾料到的损失。超过900万名士兵在战斗中死去。有时因为封锁而人为造成了食物短缺，有时由于土地歉收造成缺粮少食，这种食物匮乏损害了留在大后方的民众的健康：近600万平民死于疾病或饥饿，还有近100万平民直接死于军事行动。据估计，这场战争造成的死亡人数总计超过了1600万。

此外还有那些伤员，人数超过2100万。他们当中的一些人恢复了健康，而另一些人则不管是身体还是心灵都再也没能复原。1.enlist [#618;n#712;l#618;st] vi. 参军；入伍

2.call up: 征召……入伍

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

4.lay waste to: 毁坏；蹂躏；使荒芜

5.trench [trent#643;] n. 战壕；壕沟

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

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

8.shell [#643;el] n. 炮弹

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

10.inflict [#618;n#712;fl#618;kt] vt. 造成；使遭受(伤害或破坏等)

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

12.home front: (战时的)大后方

13.stand [st#230;nd] vi. (价值、水平、分数等)处于(某一数量)，是……为纪念一战爆发100周年，英国新闻摄影师Peter Macdiarmid搜集了一战时期的旧照片，并拍摄了照片上那些地方现在的样子。他把一战时的黑白照片与百年后的彩色照片重叠放置，使二者形成了鲜明的对比，给我们带来了视觉上的冲击。这组独具创意的照片不仅让我们看到了历史变迁带来的变化，也令人不禁感叹和平的弥足珍贵。1914年11月，几个小孩用纸帽子和手杖枪装扮成士兵站在英国伦敦特拉法加广场上，背后立着写有“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.战争带来的不仅是人员的伤亡，旧有的世界秩序也遭到了无法弥补的破坏。奥匈帝国和土耳其帝国都在这场战争中被摧毁。在欧洲和中东，一批新的国家从这些帝国的灰烬中建立起来。沙俄帝国因革命(编注：指俄国二月革命)而灭亡，变成世界上第一个共产主义国家。君主制衰落了。随着美国发起而之后选择不加入的国际联盟的成立，新的世界秩序形成了。在近一个世纪之后的今天，我们能听到其中许多政治变革的余音在世间回响。

全世界有数以百万计的人仍能感受到这场世界文明之战和他们之间的关联。他们认识被这场战争改变命运的人们，他们依然感动于受它启发而创造的生命力持久的艺术品，他们在生活中仍要面对它遗留下来的尚未解决的政治问题。一战建立了一种历史通识，这种通识在数十年之后仍能把许多不同国家的人们联系在一起。

有时，第一次世界大战感觉像是遥远的历史。那些抖动的黑白影像、陌生的服饰和拉车的马匹，看起来似乎全都属于一个早已被遗忘的世界。然而，最后一批参加过一战的士兵不久前才辞世。经历过1914~1918年的那一代人中，只有少数仍然健在，他们当年目睹了战争，但因为太年幼而未参战。

这场战争正不可阻挡地从那些活着的人们的记忆边缘流逝。随着1914~1918年第一次世界大战100周年纪念的临近，我们必须更努力地确保自己不会忘记。如果我们想理解今天，就需要了解并记住昨天发生的事。14.wrack [r#230;k] vt. 摧毁

15.reverberate [r#618;#712;v#604;#720;b#601;re#618;t] vi. (巨大声音造成的)回响；回荡

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

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

18.jumpy [#712;d#658;#652;mpi] adj. 跳跃的，跳动的

19.inexorably [#618;n#712;eks#601;r#601;bli] adv. 不可阻挡地；无情地

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