It was on her first official overseas visit, to South Africa in 1947, that the future Queen Elizabeth II pledged in a radio broadcast to devote her life to the service of her people, “whether it be long or short”. She would fulfil that vow to the end of a reign that proved the second-longest by any monarch in world history. Yet the Queen was far more than a servant of her people. She became an enduring symbol of identity, a pivot around which her country changed perhaps even more profoundly than during the reign of her long-lived great-great-grandmother, Victoria.
1947年，在出訪南非期間，未來的英國女王伊莉莎白二世(Queen Elizabeth II)在廣播中承諾，將奉獻自己的一生爲人民服務，「無論是長是短」。那是她的首次正式出訪。她將履行那個誓言，直到在位的最後一天。事實證明，她是世界歷史上在位時間第二長的君主。然而，女王遠不止是她人民的僕人。她成爲一種持久不變的身份象徵，她的國家圍繞著這個軸心發生的變化，或許比她長壽的曾曾祖母維多利亞(Victoria)女王統治時期更爲深刻。