克林顿总统就职演说

My fellow citizens:

Today we celebrate the mystery of American renewal.

同胞们，今天，我们在这里隆重集会来庆祝复兴美国伟大时刻的到来。

This ceremony is held in the depth of winter. But by the words we speak and faces we show the world. We force the spring. A spring reborn in the world's oldest democracy, that brings forth the vision and courage to reinvent American.

现在虽然仍是寒月隆冬，但在对世界发出的誓言和展示的姿态中，我们已经让春暖花开悄然降临到了每个人的心里。春天已经来到了世界上最古老的民主国家，它为美利坚的中兴带来了一派欣欣向荣的新气象和令人鼓舞的勇气。

When our founder boldly declared America's independence to the world and our purposes to the almighty,they knew that America, would have to change.，to endure,Not change for change's sake,but change to preserve America's ideals, life,liberty ,the pursuit of happiness. Though we march to the music of our time,our mission is timeless. Each generation of Americans must define what if means to be an American.

当美利坚合众国的缔造者向全世界宣告这个国家的独立和我们的远大目标的时候，他们已然知道，美利坚合众国必须在不断的变革中才能得到长足的生存和发展。然而，我们并不是仅仅为了改变而改变，我们要变革是为了保持美利坚尊重生命，尊重国家公民自由和追求幸福的权利的立国思想万代千秋永垂不朽！此刻，虽然我们已经伴随着时代的行进曲抬头挺进，但我们仍然需要与时俱进。每一个时代的美国人都必须清楚的了解自己作为一个美国公民的使命所在。

On behalf of our nation, I salute my predecessor, president Bush,for his half-century of service to America. And I thank the millions of men and women whose steadfastness and sacrifice triumphed over Depression, fascism and communism.

在这里，请允许我代表国家，向我的前任——布什总统致敬，他尽忠职守的为这个国家奉献了半个世纪。同时，我还要感谢数以百万的美国人，他们在艰难困苦中坚定信念，牺牲奉献，最终战胜了大萧条，法西斯和共产主义。

Today, a generation raised in shadows of the Cold War assumes new responsibilities in a world warmed by the sunshine of freedom but threaten still by ancient hatreds and new plagues.

今天，在冷战阴影下成长的一代在我们这个被自由阳光温暖的世界中肩负着新的责任，但是我们仍面临着新仇与旧恨的威胁。

Raised in unrivaled prosperity, we inherit an economy that is still the world's strongest, but is weakened by business failures, stagnant(停滞的) wages, increasing inequality, and deep divisions among our people.

尽管我们在无与伦比的物质繁华中成长，尽管我们仍然继承了世界上最为强大的经济体，但实际上我们的社会同时也被商业萧条，收入停滞不前，不平等现象不断增加以及阶层隔阂加剧所削弱。

When George Washington first took the oath I have just sworn to uphold, news traveled slowly across the land by horseback and across the ocean by boat. Now, the sights and sounds of this ceremony are broadcast instantaneously to billions around the world.

当乔治华盛顿在宣誓我刚才所宣誓过的誓词的时候，消息是通过马背和舰船缓慢的穿过陆地，跨过海洋的。而此刻，盛会现场的现场音频视频信号正在向全球的亿万观众不间断直播。

Communications and commerce are global; investment is mobile; technology is almost

magical; and ambition for a better life is now universal. We earn our livelihood in peaceful competition with people all across the earth.

现代社会，沟通和商业是全球化的，技术发展令人惊讶，同时让生活更美好也成为了大家的愿望。我们在全球性的公平竞争中营造我们自己的生活。

Profound and powerful forces are shaking and remaking our world, and the urgent question of our time is whether we can make change our friend and not our enemy.

深厚和强大的力量正在动摇和改写我们的世界，而能否让变革成为我们的朋友而非敌人成为了我们这个时代最为紧迫的问题。

This new world has already enriched the lives of millions of Americans who are able to compete and win in it. But when most people are working harder for less; when others cannot work at all; when the cost of health care devastates families and threatens to bankrupt many of our enterprises, great and small; when fear of crime robs law-abiding citizens of their freedom; and when millions of poor children cannot even imagine the lives we are calling them to lead, we have not made change our friend.

这个新世界已经让数以百万计的美国人通过努力奋斗过上了富足的生活，但当大部分的人每天都在努力工作却只能勉强维持生计，当还有人得不到工作，当医疗卫生的支出正在让许多的家庭支离破碎，当大大小小的企业正在面临破产威胁的时候，当犯罪案件频发给遵纪守法的人们带来极大恐慌而无法正常享受生活的时候，当还有数以百万计的贫苦儿童甚至还过着我们无法想象的生活的时候，我们还没有让变革成为我们的朋友。

We know we have to face hard truths and take strong steps. But we have not done so. Instead, we have drifted, and that drifting has eroded our resources, fractured our economy, and shaken our confidence.

我们知道我们必须面对残酷的现实和采取更有力的措施。但是我们还没有付诸实际行动，而是听天由命随波逐流，而恰恰正是这种听之任之的不作为正在腐蚀我们的根基，削弱我们的经济，它正在动摇我们的信心。

Though our challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths. And Americans have ever been a restless, questing, hopeful people. We must bring to our task today the vision and will of those who came before us. 尽管我们面临的挑战令人畏惧，但是我们的力量也同样不容忽视。美利坚的国民从来就不甘于现状，我们一直都在不断探索进取，乐观向上。我们肩膀上的使命带着美利坚的先驱们赋予的美好愿望和坚强意志。

From our revolution, to the Civil War, to the Great Depression to the civil rights movement, our people have always mustered the determination to construct from these crises the pillars of our history. 从我们的革命开始，到南北战争到大萧条再到民权运动，我们的人民一次又一次的从危机中万众一心众志成城的书写着历史的丰碑。

Thomas Jefferson believed that to preserve the very foundations of our nation, we would need dramatic change from time to time. Well, my fellow Americans, this is our time. Let us embrace it.

托马斯杰斐逊坚信为了维护我们国家的根基，我们必须与时俱进义无返顾的进行变革。现在，亲爱的同胞们，我们改革的时刻到来了，让我们一起紧密拥抱它吧。

Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.

我们的民主不单单是世界向往的楷模同时更是美利坚自我复兴的强劲动力，它将带领着伟大的美利坚这艘巨舰一如既往乘风破浪无往不前。

And so today, we pledge an end to the era of deadlock and drift; a new season of

American renewal has begun. To renew America, we must be bold. We must do what no generation has had to do before. We must invest more in our own people, in their jobs, in their future, and at the same time cut our massive debt. And we must do so in a world in which we must compete for every opportunity. It will not be easy; it will require sacrifice. But it can be done, and done fairly, not choosing sacrifice for its own sake, but for our own sake. We must provide for our nation the way a family provides for its children.

今天，我们要在这里宣告僵持和随波逐流时代的结束，一个美利坚复兴的全新时代已经开始。为了重振美利坚雄风，除了披荆斩棘勇往向前，我们别无选择。我们必须排除万难做一些前人从未做过的创举。我们的政策需要向美国本土的就业，未来倾斜，同时减缩巨额债务。我们还要建立一个公平竞争的社会，这不是一件容易的事情，它需要我们做出牺牲，但它一定会实现，牺牲并不是我们的目的，实现我们的目标才是我们的最终目的，我们要像一个家庭对待自己的孩子一样对待我们的国家。

Our Founders saw themselves in the light of posterity. We can do no less. Anyone who has ever watched a child's eyes wander into sleep knows what posterity is. Posterity(子孙，后裔) is the world to come; the world for whom we hold our ideals, from whom we have borrowed our planet, and to whom we bear sacred responsibility. We must do what America does best: offer more opportunity to all and demand responsibility from all.

美利坚的开国元勋们从建国伊始就一直从子孙万代的长远利益出发考虑国家的发展规划。我们更需要考虑更多。每一个注视过在梦想中熟睡的孩子眼睛的的人都明白子孙后代意味着什么。孩子就意味着未来的世界，一个我们为之而努力捍卫美利坚普世价值观思想的世界，从他们那里我们借用了这一个星球，而为了他们我们承担了很多神圣的责任。我们必须倾尽我们所有让这个国家至善完美，那就是，赋予所有国民更多机会以及责任！

It is time to break the bad habit of expecting something for nothing, from our government or from each other. Let us all take more responsibility, not only for ourselves and our families but for our communities and our country. To renew America, we must revitalize our democracy.

现在该是到了打破只管索取而不付出这一坏习惯的时候了，不管是我们的政府还是任何一方。让我们承担其更多的责任吧，不仅仅是为了我们的家庭，而是为了我们的社区和国家。要复兴美利坚，我们就必须重建我们的民主制度。

This beautiful capital, like every capital since the dawn of civilization, is often a place of intrigue and calculation. Powerful people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is in and who is out, who is up and who is down, forgetting those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and pays our way.

这个美丽的首都，就像每一个文明初生的首都一样，常常是一个充满阴谋和较量的地方，权贵们为了高官厚禄而费尽心思盘算着谁进谁出，谁上谁下。他们也许早已忘记了那些为了我们今天的生而付出了艰辛汗水和多少磨难的先辈们。

Americans deserve better, and in this city today, there are people who want to do better. And so I say to all of us here, let us resolve to reform our politics, so that power and privilege no longer shout down the voice of the people. Let us put aside personal advantage so that we can feel the pain and see the promise of America. Let us resolve to make our government a place for what Franklin Roosevelt called "bold, persistent experimentation," a government for our tomorrows, not our yesterdays. Let us give this capital back to the people to whom it belongs.

美利坚的国民本该得到更好的生活，就在这城市，就在今天，还有很多的人向往着那些更令人憧憬的美好生活。在这里我要跟所有的人说，同胞们，让我们坚决地把我们的政治制度改革事业进行到底吧，那样那些权贵和利益集团从此往后再也不能覆盖来自人民的声音，

让我们把我们的政府变成一个富兰克林罗斯福称之为持续进行大刀阔斧变革的试验场，变成一个给我们带来更美好的明天而不是让生活倒退的政府。让我们把这个美丽的首都归还给到她本来的主人——我们美利坚公民的手上！

To renew America, we must meet challenges abroad as well as at home. There is no longer division between what is foreign and what is domestic; the world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS crisis, the world arms race; they affect us all.

要复兴美利坚，我们要面临来自国内外的挑战！这些挑战无法区分哪些是来自海外哪些来自本土，全球经济，世界环境，艾滋病危机，还有全球军备竞赛，这些问题无时不刻不在影响着我们。

Today, as an old order passes, the new world is more free but less stable. Communism's collapse has called forth old animosities（仇恨）and new dangers. Clearly America must continue to lead the world we did so much to make.

时至今日，作为一个旧的秩序的过渡，新的世界获得了更多的自由同时也更加动荡。共产主义的垮台带来了新仇旧恨，我们清楚的认识到美国必须继续一如既往的领导世界向前开进。

While America rebuilds at home, we will not shrink from the challenges, nor fail to seize[i:] the opportunities, of this new world. Together with our friends and allies, we will work to shape change, lest it engulf us.

当我们重建美国的时候，面对挑战我们不会退缩，不会放弃我们主导新世界的机会，我们将和我们的盟友一起重塑变革，让它顺应我们的意志。

When our vital interests are challenged, or the will and conscience of the international community is defied, we will act; with peaceful diplomacy when ever possible, with force when necessary. The brave Americans serving our nation today in the Persian Gulf, in Somalia, and wherever else they stand are testament to our resolve.

当美国的重要利益受到挑战，或者国际社会的道德秩序受到公然挑衅的时候，我们不会袖手旁观，我们将采取和平的外交手段及一切可能的方法，必要的时候甚至诉诸武力解决问题。就在现在，骁勇善战的美军士兵正在波斯湾，在索马里以及其他任何需要他们去履行美国政府意志的地方实现美国的决心。

But our greatest strength is the power of our ideas, which are still new in many lands. Across the world, we see them embraced, and we rejoice. Our hopes, our hearts, our hands, are with those on every continent who are building democracy and freedom. Their cause is America's cause.

实际上我们最强大的力量所在是我们的思想，在很多的领域都占据领先地位。纵观全球，我们看到这些思想为世人所接受，而我们也深感欣慰，我们的希望，我们的热心，我们的双手，靠着这些我们帮助了其他国家的人民在每一块大陆建立了民主和自由，他们的成就也是美国的成就。

The American people have summoned the change we celebrate today. Y ou have raised your voices in an unmistakable chorus. Y ou have cast your votes in historic numbers. And you have changed the face of Congress, the presidency and the political process itself. Y es, you, my fellow Americans have forced the spring. Now, we must do the work the season demands.

美国人民一直在召唤着我们做出今天所提出的变革，你们已经发出圣歌的强音，你们已经投出了具有历史意义的一票，是你们，让国会旧貌换新颜，你们改变了美利坚的总统制度和政治进程。是的，亲爱的美国同胞们，是你们促使了美利坚春暖花开的早日到来。同胞们，现在，到了我们响应时代要求付诸实际行动的时候了。

To that work I now turn, with all the authority of my office. I ask the Congress to join with me. But no president, no Congress, no government, can undertake this mission alone. My fellow Americans, you, too, must play your part in our renewal. I challenge a new generation of young Americans to a season of service; to act on your idealism by helping troubled children, keeping company with those in need, reconnecting our torn communities. There is so much to be done; enough indeed for millions of others who are still young in spirit to give of themselves in service, too.

我将和本届政府的所有职能部门来肩负这一重要使命，我也将请求国会和我们站在一起。但是，没有哪一个总统，哪一届国会哪一届政府能单独扛起这样的重任。亲爱的同胞们，你们，我们需要你们和我们一起参与到伟大的美利坚复兴运动中来。我呼吁美国的年青一代加入到报效国家的行列中来，去通过帮助贫困交加和需要帮助的儿童来实现你的理想，陪伴那些有需要的人们，重新连接我们撕裂的社区，这是一项浩瀚的工程，足以让成千上万有理想的年轻人投身其中。

In serving, we recognize a simple but powerful truth, we need each other. And we must care for one another. Today, we do more than celebrate America; we rededicate ourselves to the very idea of America.

加入效力国家的行列，我们就会明白一个很简单但却很令人振奋的道理，我相互需要。所以我们需要关爱彼此。今天，我们来这里不是仅仅为了欢呼为了庆祝，我们更需要把自己奉献给最重要的美国思想。

An idea born in revolution and renewed through two centuries of challenge. An idea tempered by the knowledge that, but for fate we, the fortunate and the unfortunate, might have been each other. An idea ennobled by the faith that our nation can summon from its myriad diversity the deepest measure of unity. An idea infused with the conviction that America's long heroic journey must go forever upward.

这是一种诞生于隆隆的革命洪潮并经受了两个世纪洗礼的理念。这是一种炼就于知识与智慧的理念，它在影响着我们的一生，不管幸与不幸的人们，我们都身处这种思想当中。

And so, my fellow Americans, as we stand at the edge of the 21st century, let us begin with energy and hope, with faith and discipline, and let us work until our work is done. The scripture says, "And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season, we shall reap, if we faint not."

所以，亲爱的同胞们，当我们已经站在二十一世纪的边缘，让我们带着希望和力量，带着信念和纪律，让我们把美利坚的复兴进行到底吧，正如圣经所说：不要厌于行善，在收获的季节，假如没有倒下，我们将得到收获。

From this joyful mountaintop of celebration, we hear a call to service in the valley. We have heard the trumpets. We have changed the guard. And now, each in our way, and with God's help, we must answer the call.

在欢乐的庆祝巅峰之中，我听到了山谷中传来的召唤，我们听到了凯旋的号角声，我们已经换岗各就各位，现在，每一个和我们站在一起的人，在神的帮助之下，我们都必须响应国家的呼唤。

Thank you, and God bless you all.

谢谢大家，愿上帝保佑你们！