克林顿的第二次就职演说(2)

　　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.

　　虽然我们的挑战是可畏的，但我们的力量也是可畏的。美国人民从来就是一个不甘寂寞、勇于探索和充满希望的人民。我们必须使我们今天的任务体现我们前人的远见和意志。

　　From our revolution, 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.

　　从美国革命到南北战争，到大萧条，到民权运动，我们的人民总是下定决心，从这些危机中摆脱出来去建立我们历史的支柱。

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

　　托马斯杰斐逊认为，要保持我们国家的基础，我们就需要不时地进行改革。同胞们，这是我们的时代，让我们去拥抱它。

　　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.

　　我们的民主制度不仅要为全世界所仰慕，还必须成为我们自我振兴的发动机。美国完全有能力自己解救自己。

　　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.

　　因此，今天我们决心结束这个僵持停顿和放任自流的时代。一个振兴美国的新时代已经到来。要振兴美国，我们必须有足够的勇气和胆量。我们必须对自己的人民——对他们的工作和对他们的未来——增加投资，同时削减我们的巨额债务。在一个我们必须靠竞争才能获得每个机会的世界上，我们一定要这样做。虽然，这不是一件轻而易举的事，它需要作出牺牲。但是，我们能够做到，而且能够做得很好。我们不是为了牺牲而牺牲，而是为我们自己的利益而牺牲。我们必须像一个家庭抚育它的孩子那样抚育我们的国家。

　　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 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.

　　我们的缔造者们是从子孙后代的角度来审视他们自己的行为。我们也必须这样做。任何曾经注意过孩子的双眼朦胧进入梦乡的人，都知道后代是什么。后代是未来的世界。为了他们，我们满怀理想。从他们那里，我们借用了这块地球，对他们，我们负有神圣的责任。我们必须尽美国之所能：向所有人提供更多的机会，要求所有人承担更多的责任。

　　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，已经到了该破除那种只望政府或别人给予，而自己不愿付出的坏习惯的时候了。让我们大家都担负起更多的责任，不光是为我们自己和我们的家庭，而且是我们的社会和我们的国家。为振兴美国，我们必须给我们的民主制度带来新的活力。

　　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，就像文明出现以来的所有首都一样，往往是一个搞阴谋诡计和勾心斗角的地方。达官贵族们玩弄权术、争名夺利，随时都在担心谁进谁出、谁升谁降，忘记了那些用辛勤和汗水把我们送到这里，并为我们承担费用的人。

　　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.

　　美国人应当生活得更好。今天，在这座城市里，人们希望把事情办得更好。所以，我要向在场的诸位说，让我们下定决心改革我们的政治，使人民的呼声不再被权力和特权所压倒。让我们抛开个人利益，这样，我们便能感受到美国的痛苦，也看到美国的希望。让我们下定决心，使我们的政府成为一个富兰克林罗斯福所说的，进行“大胆而持久的实验”的地方，即是说，成为一个着眼于未来，而不是留恋过去的政府。让我们把这个首都还给她所属的人民。