书城外语课外英语-美国总统演讲选萃(上)(双语版)
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第20章 西奥多·罗斯福就职演讲(1905)(1)

1905年3月4日,星期六

My fellow-citizens:

同胞们:

No people on earth have more cause to be thankful than ours,and this is said reverently,in no spirit of boastfulness in our own strength,but with gratitude to the Giver of Good who has blessed us with the conditions which have enabled us to achieve so large a measure of well-being and of happiness.To us as a people it has been granted to lay the foundations of our national life in a new continent.We are the heirs of the ages,and yet we have had to pay few of the penalties which in old countries are exacted by the dead hand of a bygone civilization.

世界上没有哪一个民族比我们更有理由感到欣慰了,这样说是谦恭的,绝无夸耀我们的力量之意,而是怀着对赐福于我们、使我们能够有条件获得如此巨大的幸福康乐的上帝的感激之情,作为一个民族,我们获得上帝的许可,在新大陆上奠下国民生活的基础。我们是时代的继承者,然而我们无需像在古老的国家里那样,承受以往文明的遗留影响所强加的惩罚。

We have not been obliged to fight for our existence against any alien race;and yet our life has called for the vigor and effort without which the manlier and hardier virtues wither away.Under such conditions it would be our own fault if we failed;and the success which we have had in the past,the success which we confidently believe the future will bring,should cause in us no feeling of vainglory,but rather a deep and abiding realization of all which life has offered us;a full acknowledgment of the responsibility which is ours;and a fixed determination to show that under a free government a mighty people can thrive best,alike as regards the things of the body and the things of the soul.

我们不必为了自己的生存而去同任何异族抗衡;然而,我们的生活要求活力和勤奋,没有这些,雄健刚毅的美德就会消失殆尽。在这种条件下,倘若我们失败了,那便是我们自己的过错;我们在过去获得的成功,我们深信未来将带给我们的成功,不应使我们目空一切,而是要深刻地长久地认识到生活为我们提供的一切,充分认识我们肩负的责任,并矢志表明;在自由政府的领导下,一个强大的民族能够繁荣昌盛,物质生活如此,精神生活必也如此。

Much has been given us,and much will rightfully be expected from us.We have duties to others and duties to ourselves;and we can shirk neither.We have become a great nation,forced by the fact of its greatness into relations with the other nations of the earth,and we must behave as beseems a people with such responsibilities.Toward all other nations,large and small,our attitude must be one of cordial and sincere friendship.We must show not only in our words,but in our deeds,that we are earnestly desirous of securing their good will by acting toward them in a spirit of just and generous recognition of all their rights.

我们被赋予的很多,期望于我们的自然也很多。我们对他人负有义务,对自己也负有义务;两者都不能逃避。我们已成为一个伟大的国家,这一事实迫使我们在同世界上其他国家交往时,行为举止必须与负有这种责任的民族相称。对于其他一切国家,无论大国还是小国,我们的态度都必须热诚真挚友好。我们必须不仅用语言,而且以行动表明,我们公正、宽宏地承认他们的一切权利,用这种精神对待他们,我们热切希望能获得他们的善意。

But justice and generosity in a nation,as in an individual,count most when shown not by the weak but by the strong.While ever careful to refrain from wrongdoing others,we must be no less insistent that we are not wronged ourselves.We wish peace,but we wish the peace of justice,the peace of righteousness.We wish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid.No weak nation that acts manfully and justly should ever have cause to fear us,and no strong power should ever be able to single us out as a subject for insolent aggression.

但是,一个国家的公正与宽宏,如同一个人的公正与宽宏一样,不是由弱者而是由强者表现出来时,才为人推崇。在我们极其审慎地避免损害别人时,我们必须同样地坚持自己不受伤害。我们希望和平,但是我们希望的是公正的和平,正义的和平。我们这样希望是因为我们认为这是正确的,而不是因为我们怯懦胆小。行事果敢正义的弱国决无理由畏惧我们,强国则永远不能挑选我们作为蛮横入侵的对象。

Our relations with the other powers of the world are important;but still more important are our relations among ourselves.Such growth in wealth,in population,and in power as this nation has seen during the century and a quarter of its national life is inevitably accompanied by a like growth in the problems which are ever before every nation that rises to greatness.

我们同世界上其他强国的关系是重要的,但更为重要的是我们内部之间的关系。随着国家在过去125年中所经历的财富、人口和实力的增长,就像每一个逐步壮大起来的国家所遇到的情况一样,各种问题也都不可避免地相应增长了。