アメリカ独立宣言（The Declaration of Independence）は、1776年7月4日に採択された、アメリカ合衆国の独立を宣言する歴史的文書です。
「すべての人は平等に造られ（all men are created equal）」「生命、自由、幸福の追求（Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness）」など、後世に大きな影響を与えた理念が力強い英語で表現されています。
このページでは、アメリカ独立宣言の有名な一節を和訳とともに紹介し、さらに独立宣言の英語原文を全文掲載しています。
アメリカ独立宣言の有名な一節（英語・和訳）
WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness— That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
「われわれは、自明の真理として、すべての人は平等に造られ、造物主によって一定の不可譲の天賦の権利を与えられており、その中に、生命、自由および幸福の追及がふくまれていることを信ずる。また、これらの権利を確保するために、人びとの間に政府が組織されるが、その正当な権力は被治者の同意に由来するものであることを信ずる。そして、どのような形態の政府であっても、この目的を害するようになったときは、これを改廃し、彼らの安全と幸福をもたらすために最も適当と思われる権力組織をもつ、新たな政府を組織することは、人民の権利であると信ずる。」
『人権の歴史』杉原泰雄著−岩波書店：p31より
「アメリカ独立宣言（抜粋）」
＊これは独立宣言からの抜粋です。以下に英語原文の全文を掲載します。
アメリカ独立宣言の英文のしくみ
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
音声を聞く
この長い一節では、まず
We hold these truths to be self-evident, 「私たちは、次のことを自明の真理であると考える」
と述べ、そのあとに 「では、その truths（真理）とは何か」 を、that ... を使って順番に示しています。
原文では、次の5つの内容が積み重ねられています。５つとも、that…で始まっていることがわかります。
| # | Original English | 内容 |
|---|---|---|
| ① | that all men are created equal | すべての人は平等に造られている |
| ② | that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights | 人には、奪うことのできない一定の権利が与えられている |
| ③ | that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness | その権利には、生命・自由・幸福の追求が含まれる |
| ④ | That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed | これらの権利を守るために政府がつくられ、その正当な権力は統治される人々の同意から生じる |
| ⑤ | That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government …（以下省略） | 政府がその目的を損なうようになれば、人民にはそれを変え、廃止し、新しい政府をつくる権利がある |
このように見ると、
We hold these truths to be self-evident
の these truths の内容が、①→②→③→④→⑤と順番に展開されていることが分かります。しかも、単に5項目が並んでいるのではありません。
① 人は平等である
↓
② 人には権利がある
↓
③ その権利とは生命・自由・幸福の追求などである
↓
④ その権利を守るために政府が存在する
↓
⑤ その政府が権利を守らなくなれば、人民には政府を変え、廃止し、新しい政府をつくる権利がある
という、一段ずつ論理を積み上げる構造になっています。
アメリカ独立宣言の有名な一節を英語で読む
アメリカ独立宣言の中でも特によく知られているのが、冒頭近くに置かれた一節です。長く、現代の英語とは少し異なる表現も使われていますが、英文の組み立てを順番に追っていくと、何を述べているのかが見えやすくなります。ここでは、難しい英語をさらに難しい言葉で説明するのではなく、できるだけやさしい英語に置き換えながら読んでみます。
In Simple English
We believe that the following ideas are clearly true and do not need to be proved. All people are created equal, and they have certain basic rights that cannot rightfully be taken away. These include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Governments are created to protect these rights, and their legitimate power comes from the agreement of the people they govern. If a government works against these purposes, the people have the right to change it or replace it with a new government.
原文の意味を一語ずつ置き換えたものではありません。原文が伝えている内容を、よりやさしい現代英語で表したものです。
Words & Phrases
| Original English | Simple English / Notes |
|---|---|
| hold A to be B | believe that A is B |
| We hold these truths to be self-evident. | We believe these truths are self-evident. ここでの hold は「持つ」ではなく、「〜だと考える」「〜だとみなす」という意味です。 |
| self-evident | clearly true without needing to be proved Something is self-evident when it is so clear that it does not need to be proved. |
| be endowed with | be given something valuable or important |
| they are endowed … with certain unalienable Rights | 人には一定の不可譲の権利が与えられている、という意味で使われています。 |
| unalienable Rights | rights that cannot rightfully be taken away unalienable は、現代では inalienable と綴られることも多い語です。 |
| the pursuit of Happiness | the act of trying to achieve happiness pursuit は「追い求めること」「追求」です。 |
| derive A from B | get A from B / have A come from B |
| deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed | 政府の正当な権力は、統治される人々の同意から生じる、という意味です。 |
| the consent of the governed | the agreement of the people who are governed |
| alter | change |
| abolish | officially end or remove something |
| alter or abolish it | change it or end it |
Say It Another Way
独立宣言の英語は18世紀の英語です。難しい表現も、やさしい現代英語に言い換えると意味がつかみやすくなります。
| Original English | Say It Another Way |
|---|---|
| self-evident | clearly true |
| unalienable Rights | rights that cannot rightfully be taken away |
| the pursuit of Happiness | trying to achieve happiness |
| the Consent of the Governed | the agreement of the people who are governed |
| Governments are instituted among Men. | People create governments. |
| It is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it. | The people have the right to change it or end it. |
アメリカ独立宣言 全文（英語原文）
以下は、1776年7月4日に採択されたアメリカ独立宣言（The Declaration of Independence）の英語原文です。
冒頭の「すべての人は平等に造られ」「生命、自由および幸福の追求」といった言葉は特によく知られていますが、独立宣言の全文では、なぜ植民地がイギリスから独立する必要があると考えたのか、その理由と理念が詳しく述べられています。
※以下では、歴史的文書として原文の表現をそのまま掲載しています。現代では不適切・侮蔑的とされる表現も一部含まれています。
The Declaration of Independence
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
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.
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.
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, sexes and conditions.
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.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish 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 usurpations, 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.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
出典：U.S. National Archives, “Declaration of Independence: A Transcription”
※句読点の一部は、Web表示上の仕様により原資料と異なる場合があります。
アメリカ独立宣言 全文 英日対訳（ELMラボ訳）
ここからは、独立宣言の全文を、英語の段落ごとに日本語訳と並べて読んでいきます。英文の構造がなるべく見えるように訳しているので、先ほどの英文全文と行き来しながら読んでみてください。
※ここでは State を「州」ではなく「邦」と訳しています。独立宣言は、13の植民地がそれぞれ独立した政治体としての State となることを宣言した文書であるためです。
In Congress, July 4, 1776
1776年7月4日、大陸会議において
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
アメリカ13邦の全会一致の宣言
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
人類の歴史の流れの中で、ある人民が、他の人民と自らを結びつけてきた政治的なきずなを断ち切り、自然の法と自然の神の法によって与えられた、独立した対等な地位を、世界の諸国の間で占めることが必要となったとき、人類の意見に対するしかるべき敬意から、その人民には、自らを分離へと駆り立てる理由を明らかにすることが求められる。
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
われわれは、次の真理を自明のものと考える。すべての人は平等に造られ、造物主によって、奪うことのできない一定の権利を与えられていること。その権利の中には、生命、自由、そして幸福の追求が含まれること。――これらの権利を確保するために、人々の間に政府が設けられ、その正当な権力は、統治される者の同意に由来すること。――そして、いかなる形態の政府であれ、これらの目的を損なうものとなったときには、その政府を改め、または廃止し、人民が自らの安全と幸福を実現するのに最も適していると考える原理に基礎を置き、そのような形で権限を組織した新たな政府を樹立することは、人民の権利であること。
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
もちろん、思慮分別からすれば、長く続いてきた政府を、軽微で一時的な理由によって変えるべきではない。実際、これまでのあらゆる経験が示してきたとおり、人類は、害悪が耐えられるものである限り、慣れ親しんだ統治形態を廃止して自らの状況を正すよりも、むしろ耐え忍ぼうとするものである。
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
しかし、権力の濫用と簒奪（正当な権限のない権力の奪取）が長く続き、常に同じ目的を追い求めることで、人民を絶対的な専制のもとに置こうとする意図が明らかになったときには、そのような政府を投げ捨て、将来の安全のために新たな保障を設けることは、人民の権利であり、義務である。――これらの植民地は、まさにそのような苦難を辛抱強く耐え忍んできた。そして今、まさにその必要性が、植民地に従来の統治制度を改めることを強いている。
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
現在のイギリス国王のこれまでの行為は、度重なる侵害と簒奪の歴史であり、そのすべてが、これらの邦に対する絶対的な専制を打ち立てることを直接の目的としている。これを証明するために、事実を公正な世界の判断に委ねよう。
※以下は、独立を正当化するために大陸会議がイギリス国王ジョージ3世に対して列挙した告発です。個々の主張は、植民地側の立場から記された歴史的文書として読んでください。
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
国王は、公共の利益にとって最も有益で必要な法律に対して、裁可を拒んできた。
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
国王は、緊急かつ差し迫った重要性をもつ法律であっても、国王の裁可が得られるまで施行を停止しない限り、総督たちがそれを成立させることを禁じてきた。そして、施行が停止されると、それらの法律をまったく顧みなかった。
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
国王は、広大な地域に住む人々の便宜のためのほかの法律についても、その人々が立法府における代表権を放棄しない限り、成立させることを拒んできた。代表権は、人々にとってはかけがえのない権利であり、ただ暴君にとってのみ恐るべき権利である。
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
国王は、立法府の議員たちを疲れさせて自らの方針に従わせることだけを目的に、異例で、不便で、公文書の保管場所から遠く離れた場所に、立法府を招集してきた。
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
国王は、代議院が人民の権利に対する国王の侵害に毅然として反対したことを理由に、代議院をくり返し解散させてきた。
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
国王は、そのような解散の後も、長いあいだ新たな議員を選出させることを拒んできた。その結果、消滅させることのできない立法権は、その行使のために人民全体の手に戻った。その間、邦は、外からの侵略と内からの騒乱のあらゆる危険にさらされたままとなった。
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
国王は、これらの邦の人口が増えることを妨げようとしてきた。そのために、外国人の帰化に関する法律を妨害し、外国人のこの地への移住を促すほかの法律の成立を拒み、新たな土地の割当て条件を厳しくしてきた。
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
国王は、司法権を確立するための法律への裁可を拒むことによって、司法の運営を妨げてきた。
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
国王は、裁判官の在職期間と、俸給の額および支払いを、国王自身の意思だけに依存させてきた。
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
国王は、数多くの新たな官職を設け、この地に役人の群れを送り込んで、われわれの人民を苦しめ、その財産を食いつぶしてきた。
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
国王は、平時においても、われわれの立法府の同意なしに、われわれの間に常備軍を置いてきた。
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
国王は、軍を文民権力から独立させ、しかもその上位に置こうとしてきた。
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
国王は、他の者たちと結託して、われわれの国制とは相容れず、われわれの法が認めていない支配の下に、われわれを服従させようとしてきた。そして、彼らの見せかけの立法に裁可を与えてきた。その立法とは、次のようなものである。
※以下の「For …」で始まる9項目は、直前の「見せかけの立法（Acts of pretended Legislation）」の中身を列挙したものです。
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
大規模な武装部隊を、われわれの間に宿営させるための立法。
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
これらの兵士が、これらの邦の住民を殺害したとしても、見せかけの裁判によって処罰を免れさせるための立法。
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
世界のあらゆる地域とのわれわれの貿易を断ち切るための立法。
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
われわれの同意なしに、われわれに課税するための立法。
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
多くの場合に、陪審による裁判の恩恵をわれわれから奪うための立法。
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
罪があるとして裁くために、われわれを海の向こうへ移送するための立法。
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
隣接する植民地において、イギリスの法による自由な制度を廃止し、そこに専断的な政府を樹立し、その境界を拡大することで、それをこれらの植民地に同じ絶対的支配を持ち込むための、先例であると同時に格好の道具とするための立法。
※ここでいう a neighbouring Province は、1774年のケベック法（Quebec Act）の対象となったケベックを指します。原文では地名を明示していないため、本文では「隣接する植民地」と訳しています。
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
われわれの特許状を取り上げ、われわれの最も大切な法律を廃止し、われわれの統治形態を根本から変えるための立法。
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
われわれ自身の立法府の活動を停止させ、いかなる場合にもわれわれに対して立法する権力が自分たちにあると宣言するための立法。
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
国王は、われわれを自らの保護の外に置くと宣言し、われわれに対して戦争を仕掛けることによって、この地における統治を自ら放棄した。
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
国王は、われわれの海域を荒らし、沿岸を蹂躙し、町を焼き払い、人民の命を奪ってきた。
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.
国王は、いまこの時も、外国人傭兵の大軍を送り込み、死と荒廃と専制の所業を完遂しようとしている。その所業は、最も野蛮な時代にもほとんど例を見ないほどの残虐さと背信をもってすでに始められており、文明国の元首にはまったくふさわしくないものである。
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.
国王は、公海で捕らえられたわれわれの同胞市民に、自らの国に対して武器を取らせ、自らの友人や同胞の処刑者となるか、さもなくば彼らの手にかかって自ら倒れるかを強いてきた。
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, sexes and conditions.
国王は、われわれの間に内乱をあおり、また、われわれの辺境の住民に対して、「無慈悲なインディアンの野蛮人」をけしかけようとしてきた。その戦いのやり方は、年齢、性別、身分を問わず無差別に殺戮することだと知られている。
※domestic insurrections（内乱）は、主に1775年のヴァージニア総督ダンモア卿の布告を念頭に置いた表現とされます。この布告は、独立派の主人のもとを離れてイギリス軍に加わる奴隷や年季奉公人に、自由を約束するものでした。
※「merciless Indian Savages」は、先住民に対する当時の白人植民地社会の偏見を反映した、現在では侮蔑的とされる表現です。歴史的文書として、原文の表現を訳出しています。
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.
これらの圧政のあらゆる段階において、われわれは最も謙虚な言葉で救済を請願してきた。しかし、われわれのくり返しの請願に対して返ってきたのは、くり返しの侵害だけであった。このように、暴君と呼ぶにふさわしいあらゆる行為によって、その人となりが示されている君主は、自由な人民の統治者としてふさわしくない。
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish 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 usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
また、われわれは、イギリスの同胞たちへの配慮も欠かしてはこなかった。彼らの議会がわれわれに対して不当な支配権を広げようとする企てについて、われわれは折にふれて彼らに警告してきた。われわれがこの地に移住し、定住した経緯を、彼らに思い起こさせてきた。彼らが本来持つ正義感と寛大さに訴え、われわれに共通する血縁のきずなにかけて、これらの簒奪を退けるよう懇願してきた。これらの簒奪は、われわれの結びつきと交流を必ずや断ち切ることになるからである。
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.
しかし、彼らもまた、正義の声にも、血縁の声にも耳を貸さなかった。したがって、われわれは、われわれの分離を告げるこの必要性を受け入れ、彼らを、人類のほかの人々と同じく、戦時には敵、平時には友とみなさなければならない。
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
したがって、われわれアメリカの連合した邦の代表者は、大陸会議に集い、われわれの意図の正しさについて世界の最高の審判者に訴えつつ、これらの植民地の善良な人民の名において、またその権威によって、ここに厳粛に公表し、宣言する。これらの連合した植民地は、自由で独立した邦であり、また当然そうあるべきであること。これらの植民地は、イギリス国王に対するすべての忠誠の義務から解放され、これらの植民地とイギリス国家との間のあらゆる政治的な結びつきは、完全に解消され、また当然そうされるべきであること。そして、自由で独立した邦として、戦争を行い、講和を結び、同盟を結び、通商を確立し、その他、独立した邦が当然の権利として行うことのできるあらゆる行為を行う、完全な権限を持つこと。
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
そして、この宣言を支えるために、神の摂理による加護を固く信じて、われわれは、互いに、われわれの生命、われわれの財産、そしてわれわれの神聖な名誉をかけることを誓う。
※ELMラボ訳。英文の語順と構造が見えるように訳しています。
独立宣言から11年後の1787年、フィラデルフィアでアメリカ合衆国憲法が署名されました。その冒頭に置かれた「We the People」で始まる一文を、英文の構造から読んでみましょう。
