奥巴马第二任就职演讲译文

奥巴马连任就职演讲译文【原创】 Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens: 拜登副总统，首席大法官先生，美国国会的议员们，尊贵的嘉宾们，公民们： Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional what makes us American is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago: 每一次我们聚聚在这里目睹一个总统就职，我们都见证了我们的宪法的持 久强大。我们恪守了民主的承诺。我们回顾了统一我们这个国家的纽带不是我 们的肤色或我们信仰的教义或我们名字的起源。使我们独一无二的使我们成 为美国人的是我们对两百多年前的独立宣言中阐述的一个理想的忠诚： “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.” “我们坚信这些真理是不言而喻的，即人人平等，他们被造物主赋予了特 有的不可剥夺的权利，其中包括生活、自由和追求幸福的权利。” Today we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time. For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self- executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth. The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a Republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed. 今天我们继续一个永无止境的旅途，在这些箴言的内涵和我们时代的现实 之间架起一座桥梁。因为历史告诉我们尽管这些真理是不言而喻的，但是他们 也从来不是自动执行；尽管自由是上帝的恩赐，它只能由他的世俗子民来捍卫。 1776 年的爱国者们不是为了取代一个少数人拥有特权或对暴民管制的专制君王 而战斗。他们给予我们一个共和国，一个民有、民治、民享的政府，这个政府 代代依靠人民维护我们的立国之本。 For more than two hundred years, we have. 在我们过去的两百多年里。 Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together. 通过皮鞭棍棒的伤痕和刀光剑影的血泊，我们得知我们建立在自由和平等 的基础上的联邦不能在一半是奴隶制一半是自由社会的状态下生存。我们自我 更新，共同前进。 Together, we determined that a modern economy requires railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce; schools and colleges to train our workers. 我们共同确立了一个信念，现代经济需要铁路和高速公路来为旅行和商业 提速；需要学校和大学培养我们的劳动者。 Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play. 我们共同发现了一个真理，市场经济只能在保护竞争和公平竞赛的一系列 规则下繁荣。 Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from lifes worst hazards and misfortune. 我们共同许下一个诺言，伟大的国家必须关爱弱势群体，保护她的人民度 过生活中最恶劣的灾难和厄运。 Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all societys ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, these are constants in our character. 经历了所有这些，我们出来没有放弃对中央集权的质疑，也没有屈从于所 有社会顽疾都可以有政府自己解决的幻想。我们对主动性和进取心的推崇；我 们对勤奋工作和匹夫有责的坚持是我们不变的秉性。 But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. For the American people can no more meet the demands of todays world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias. No single person can train all the math and science teachers well need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores. Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people. 但是我们永远牢记时代变迁，我们也要改变；对我们立国之本的忠诚要求 我们面对新挑战采取新对策；维护我们个人的自由最终要求我们共同行动。因 为美国人民如同美国军人能够战胜武装起来的法西斯主义或共产主义势力已及 各种武装分子一样能够满足当今世界的要求。没有哪一个人能培养出我们需要 的所有数学和科学老师来教育我们服务未来的孩子们，或建设道路和网络和实 验室，把新的就业岗位和新企业带回我国。现在，我们比以往任何时候都需要 作为一个国家，一个民族，共同合作来完成这些。 This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. Americas possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it so long as we seize it together. 我们这一代美国人已经经受了一系列危机的考验，这些危机锤炼了我们的 决心，证明了我们的坚韧。耗时十年的战争即将结束。经济复兴已经开始。美 国的可能是无限的，因为我们拥有这个世界需要的放之四海而皆准的所有素质： 年轻自强；多元开放；无限的应对危机的能力和自我更新的天赋。同胞们，我 们为了这个机会而生，我们要抓住它只要我们共同抓住它。 For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. We believe that Americas prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship. We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own. 因为我们人民，我们深知我们的国家不可能在日益减少的少数人富得流 油而日益增长的多数人仅仅维持生计的前提下成功。我们相信美国的繁荣必须 建立在日益增长的中产阶级的宽阔肩膀上。我们知道美国因每个人都能在他们 的工作中找到独立和骄傲而兴旺；因诚实的劳动者的工资能使他们的家庭摆脱 艰难困苦而兴旺。我们忠于我们的信条，这个信条让一个出生在赤贫家庭的女 孩相信她有与其他人相同的成功机会，因为她是美国人，她自由，她平等，不 仅是在上帝的眼里，而是在我们自己的眼里。 We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, reach higher. But while the means will change, our purpose endures: a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American. That is what this moment requires. That is what will give real meaning to our creed. 我们深知过时的项目不能满足我们时代的需要。我们必须吸纳新思想和新 技术来重建我们的政府，完善我们的税法，改革我们的学校，给我们的公民们 更加努力工作，学习和达到更高境界所需要的技能。尽管方法日新月异，但是 我们的目的始终如一：一个鼓励每个美国人的决心和努力的国家。这是这个时 刻要求的。这赋予我们的信条实际意义。 We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity. We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future. For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty, and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn. We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great. 我们人民，仍然相信每个公民应该得到基本的安全和尊严。我们必须做出减 少医保成本和赤字规模的艰难决定。但是我们绝不相信美国必须在关爱建设这 个国家的一代与投资于建设这个国家的未来的一代之间取舍。因为我们牢记过 去的教训，多少黑暗的年景在贫困中度过，多少带着一个孩子的残疾父母不知 道明天如何过。我们不相信在这个国家，自由只属于幸运儿，或幸福只属于少 数人。我们认识到不管我们如何负责任地生活，我们中的每个人，在任何时候， 都可能面对失业，或突然生病，或一场风暴之后家产灰飞烟灭。我们给每个人 的承诺是通过医保，医疗救助，已经社保这些东西不会蚕食我们的主动性； 它们使我们更强。它们没有把我们变成一个索取的国家；它们让我们自由地应 对危机使这个国家更伟大。 We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries we must claim its promise. Thats how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. Thats what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared. 我们人民，仍然相信我们作为美国人不仅仅对自己有责任，而是对所有 子孙有责任。我们将应对气候变化的危险，因为我们深知不这样我们就辜负了 我们的子孙后代。有些人可能仍然不相信这个压倒性科学判断，但是谁也不能 对暴虐的大火，恼人的干旱和越来越凶猛的风暴。通往能源可持续的道路必将 漫长崎岖。但是美国不能阻挠这个转变；我们必须引领这个转变。我们不能把 助推新工作和新行业的技术领域拱手让给其它国家我们必须抢占希望的高地。 我们将这样维系我们经济的活力和我们国家的财富我们的深林和航路；我们 的耕地和雪山。我们将这样保护我们的地球，得到上帝的厚爱。这将是我们赋 予我们父辈宣称的信条的意义。 We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage. Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty. The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well. 我们人民，仍然相信持久的太平盛世不需要连年征战。我们勇敢的男女 军人们经历了战火的砺炼，其战技和勇气雄冠全球。我们的公民，经历了失去 亲人的记忆的煎熬，太理解我们为了自由付出的代价了。对他们的牺牲的缅怀 使我们永远警惕那些企图危害我们的家伙们。但是我们还是赢得了和平而不仅 是战争的人民的后代，把我们的穷凶极恶的敌人变成推心置腹的朋友的人们的 后代，我们还必须把这些教训传给当代。 We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully not because we are naive about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe; and we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation. We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom. And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice. 我们将依靠我们武力的强大法律的规范来保卫我们的人民和维系我们的价 值。我们将彰显我们与其它国家和平合作应对和解决我们的困难的勇气不是 因为我们对我们面对的危险麻木不仁，而是因为团结一心可以永远驱除怀疑和 恐惧。美国将永远是世界上每个角落的强大联盟的中流砥柱；我们将更新扩展 我们应对境外危机的能力的法规，因为一个国家在一个和平的世界的利害关系 与在其强大的国内的利害关系是相同的。我们将支持从亚洲到非洲；从美洲到 中东的民主国家，因为我们的志趣和我们的良知驱使我们为那些一直渴望自由 的人们的利益而挺身而出。我们必须成为穷人、病人、被边缘化的人们和偏见 受害者们的希望之源不仅仅是出于慈悲，而是我们时代的和平要求我们的共 同信条规划的原则发扬光大：宽容和机会；人类尊严和公正。 We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths that all of us are created equal is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth. 我们人民，今天宣布那个最不言而喻的真理我们人人平等是仍然指 引我们的北斗星；如同它指引我们的先辈走过 Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall;如同它指引所有这些男男女女们，知名的和默默无闻的，在这个庄 严的大厅留下他们的足迹，聆听一个传教士疾呼我们不能单打独斗；聆听马丁 路德金宣布我们的自由与地球上每个人的自由都有千丝万缕的联系。 It is now our generations task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm. 现在传承我们的先辈开启的事业成了我们这一代的使命。因为只要我们的 妻子们，我们的母亲们，我们的女儿们还没有获得与她们的努力相称的收入， 我们的旅程就不能结束。只要我们的同性恋兄弟姐妹还没有被法律与其他人同 等对待我们的旅程就不能结束因为如果我们人人平等，我们互相倾注的爱就 应该也平等。只要还有公民被迫等待几个小时才能履行他们的选举权我们的旅 程就不能结束。只要我们还没有找到更好的方法欢迎那些视美国为机会的乐土 的勤奋的、充满希望的移民，只要那些朝气蓬勃的青年学生和工程师还没有被 录用而是被驱逐出境，我们的旅程就不能结束。只要我们的所有孩子们，从底 特律的大街到 Appalachia 的山麓到纽顿城寂静的小巷，还没有感到他们受到关 爱，珍惜和远离危险，我们的旅程就不能结束。 That is our generations task to make these words, these rights, these values of Life, and Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness real for every American. Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life; it does not mean we all define liberty in exactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to happiness. Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time but it does require us to act in our time. 把这些关于生活、自由和追求幸福的权利的箴言、权利和价值变成每个美国人 的现实成了我们这一代的使命。忠于我们的立国宪法不总是要求我们符合生活 的轨迹；它不意味着我们把自由都按同一模式定义，或许沿袭同一条通往幸福 的康庄大道。进步不强迫我们永远解决几个世纪以来的关于政府职能的争论 但是它的确要求我们在我们的时代有所作为。 For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act, we must act knowing that our work will be imperfect. We must act, knowing that todays victories will be only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and forty years, and four hundred years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall. 现在决策大任落到了我们头上，我们不能再等待了。我们不能误把绝对主 义当做原则，或用投机取代政策，或把骂人当做理性争论。我们必须行动，我 们必须行动而且必须认识到我们的工作不可能完美无缺。我们必须行动，而且 认识到今天的胜利仅仅是我们历史长河的一部分，今后将由站在这里四年，四 十年，四百年的人们推进那在费城大厅赋予我们的超越时代的精神。 My fello