英語の区切り、リズム・イントネーションの練習方法:付録 (I Have a Dream)

勉強法
この記事は約15分で読めます。

この記事は、「英語を話す時、どこで区切るのか:区切りの目安」と言う記事(リンクはこちら)の付録です。

英語の区切りをマスターする方法の1つとして、スピーチを聞いて勉強すると言う方法をお勧めしています。

以下は、おすすめスピーチの一つ、マーティン・ルーサー・キングJr.の「I Have a Dream」と呼ばれるものです。

I Have a Dreamスピーチとは

I Have a Dreamスピーチは、マーティン・ルーサー・キングJr.が、1963年8月にワシントンで行ったスピーチで、アメリカの公民権運動に大きく影響を与えたと言われています。

理解しやすい英語ですが、内容は深いです。

Youtubeのリンクはこちらです。(演説にはいくつかバージョンがあるため、書き起こしと多少違うところがあります。)

ご参考までに、日本語翻訳のリンクはこちらです。

I Have a Dream書き起こし(区切りのしるし付き)

I am happy | to join with you today | in what will go down in history | as the greatest demonstration | for freedom | in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, | a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, |  signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came | as a great beacon of hope | to millions of slaves, | who had been seared | in the flames of withering injustice. It came | as a joyous daybreak | to end | the long night | of their captivity. But one hundred years later, | the colored America | is still not free. One hundred years later, | the life of the colored American | is still sadly crippled | by the manacle of segregation | and the chains of discrimination.

One hundred years later, | the colored American lives on a lonely island | of poverty | in the midst | of a vast ocean | of material prosperity. One hundred years later, | the colored American is still languishing | in the corners of American society | and finds himself an exile | in his own land. So we have come here today | to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense | we have come to our Nation’s Capital | to cash a check. When the architects of our great republic | wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, | they were signing a promissory note | to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise | that all men, | yes, black men as well as white men, | would be guaranteed | the inalienable rights | of life liberty | and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today | that America has defaulted on this promissory note | insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, | America has given its colored people | a bad check, | a check that has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

But we refuse to believe | that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe | that there are insufficient funds | in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check, | a check that will give us | upon demand the riches of freedom | and security of justice.

We have also come to his hallowed spot | to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is not time | to engage in the luxury of cooling off | or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time | to make real the promise of democracy.

Now it the time | to rise from the dark | and desolate valley | of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

Now it the time | to lift our nation | from the quicksand of racial injustice | to the solid rock of brotherhood.

Now is the time | to make justice | a reality to all of God’s children.

I would be fatal for the nation | to overlook the urgency of the moment | and to underestimate | the determination of it’s colored citizens. This sweltering summer of the colored people’s legitimate discontent | will not pass | until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end | but a beginning. Those who hope | that the colored Americans needed to blow off steam | and will now be content | will have a rude awakening | if the nation returns to business | as usual.

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America | until the colored citizen is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation | until the bright day of justice emerges.

We can never be satisfied | as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel,|  cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways | and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied | as long as the colored person’s basic mobility | is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.

We can never be satisfied | as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity | by signs stating | “for white only.”

We cannot be satisfied | as long as a colored person in Mississippi cannot vote | and a colored person in New York believes | he has nothing for which to vote.

No, | no | we are not satisfied | and we will not be satisfied | until justice rolls down like waters | and righteousness | like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful | that some of you have come here | out of your trials and tribulations. Some of you have come from areas | where your quest for freedom | left you battered by storms of persecutions | and staggered by the winds of police brutality.

You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith | that unearned suffering | is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, | go back to Alabama, | go back to South Carolina|  go back to Georgia,|  go back to Louisiana, | go back to the slums and ghettos of our modern cities,|  knowing | that somehow | this situation can | and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you, my friends, | we have the difficulties | of today and tomorrow.

I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted | in the American dream.

I have a dream | that one day | this nation will rise up | and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths | to be self-evident | that all men are created equal.

I have a dream | that one day out in the red hills of Georgia | the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners | will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream | that one day | even the state of Mississippi, a state | sweltering with the heat of oppression, | will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream | that my four little children | will one day live in a nation | where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character.

I have a dream | today.

I have a dream | that one day | down in Alabama, | with its vicious racists, | with its governor | having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; | that one day right down in Alabama | little black boys and black girls | will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls | as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream | today.

I have a dream | that one day | every valley shall be engulfed, | every hill shall be exalted | and every mountain shall be made low, | the rough places will be made plains |  and the crooked places will be made straight | and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh | shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith | that I will go back to the South with. With this faith | we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair | a stone of hope.

With this faith | we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation | into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith | we will be able to work together, | to pray together,|  to struggle together, | to go to jail together, | to climb up for freedom together, | knowing | that we will be free one day.

This will be the day | when all of God’s children | will be able to sing with new meaning|  “My country ’tis of thee,| sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father’s died, | land of the Pilgrim’s pride,|  from every mountainside, | let freedom ring!”

And if America is to be a great nation, | this must become true. So let freedom ring | from the hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring | from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring | from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring | from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring | from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that, | let freedom, ring | from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring | from every hill | and molehill of Mississippi | and every mountainside.

When we let freedom ring, | when we let it ring | from every tenement | and every hamlet, | from every state | and every city, | we will be able to speed up that day| when all of God’s children, | black men and white men, | Jews and Gentiles, | Protestants and Catholics, | will be able to join hands | and sing in the words of the old spiritual, | “Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, | we are free at last.”

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書き起こしの出典
US Embassy and Consulate in the Republic of Korea

区切りは筆者