1953年美国总统艾森豪威尔就职演说

我的朋友们，

Before I begin the expression of those thoughts that I deem appropriate to this moment, would you permit me the privilege of uttering a little private prayer of my own. And I ask that you bow your heads:

在正式开始之前，我认为当前场合很适合我表达内心的思想，请大家特许我在此做一次短短的祈祷。我请求大家低下头。

Almighty God, as we stand here at this moment my future associates in the executive branch of government join me in beseeching that Thou will make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people in this throng, and their fellow citizens everywhere.

 

全能的上帝啊，此刻我们站立于此，我和我未来政府行政部门的同事们一起祈祷，请您保佑我们能全心全力地奉献服务我们在场的所有人民，以及他们在全国各地的同胞。

Give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from wrong, and allow all our words and actions to be governed thereby, and by the laws of this land. Especially we pray that our concern shall be for all the people regardless of station, race, or calling.

我们祈求您赐予我们明辨是非的力量，进而我们的言行才会受到祖国的法律约束。我们还要额外祈祷，让我们能平等关切全体人民，无关乎他们的地位、种族或职业。

May cooperation be permitted and be the mutual aim of those who, under the concepts of our Constitution, hold to differing political faiths; so that all may work for the good of our beloved country and Thy glory. Amen.

 愿您赐予合作可能，并使之成为我国宪法理念之下，不同政治派别之人的共同目标；如此，我们所有人才能服务我们的深爱的祖国，并传播天父您的荣耀。阿门。

My fellow citizens:

我的同胞们：

The world and we have passed the midway point of a century of continuing challenge. We sense with all our faculties that forces of good and evil are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before in history.

美国和世界在这个世纪迎来了许多挑战，而这个世纪也已然过半。我们也完全感受到了，正义势力和邪恶势力正在积蓄力量，全副武装，相互对峙，这种情况在此前的历史上罕见至极。

This fact defines the meaning of this day. We are summoned by this honored and historic ceremony to witness more than the act of one citizen swearing his oath of service, in the presence of God. We are called as a people to give testimony in the sight of the world to our faith that the future shall belong to the free.

而这正是我们今天汇集于此的意义。今天我们汇集于此，不仅仅是为了在这个庄严史诗的典例上，见证一名公民在上帝面前宣誓效忠祖国那么简单。上帝今日召集我们，是为了让美利坚民族向全世界重申我们的信念：未来属于自由世界。

Since this century's beginning, a time of tempest has seemed to come upon the continents of the earth. Masses of Asia have awakened to strike off shackles of the past. Great nations of Europe have fought their bloodiest wars. Thrones have toppled and their vast empires have disappeared. New nations have been born.

自本世纪伊始，一场狂风暴雨就席卷了全球各地。亚洲人民依然觉醒，要摆脱过去的枷锁。欧洲大国也历经了空前血腥的战争。王权倾覆，帝国毁灭。新生国家如雨后春笋般涌现。

For our own country, it has been a time of recurring trial. We have grown in power and in responsibility. We have passed through the anxieties of depression and of war to a summit unmatched in man's history. Seeking to secure peace in the world, we have had to fight through the forests of the Argonne, to the shores of Iwo Jima, and to the cold mountains of Korea.

而对于美国来说，本世纪充满了各种试炼。我国国力大增，也肩负起了更多的责任。我们战胜了大萧条和世界大战的考验，成为人类历史上前所未有的强大国家。为捍卫世界和平，我们奔走过阿尔贡森林的迷宫，硫磺岛的海滩，以及朝鲜半岛的寒峰。

In the swift rush of great events, we find ourselves groping to know the full sense and meaning of these times in which we live. In our quest of understanding, we beseech God's guidance. We summon all our knowledge of the past and we scan all signs of the future. We bring all our wit and all our will to meet the question:

世界局势风起云涌，我们也从中逐渐完全意识到，我们生活在一个怎样的时代。在理解时代意义的同时，我们也祈求上帝的指引。我们总结过去的经验，探索通向未来的轨迹。我们绞尽脑汁、铁了心地要回答这个问题：

How far have we come in man's long pilgrimage from darkness toward light? Are we nearing the light--a day of freedom and of peace for all mankind? Or are the shadows of another night closing in upon us?

 

在人类从黑暗步入光明的神圣征程上，我们走了多远？我们是不是正在走向光明——距离全人类自由和平的日子越来越近？还是说，我们正在走入另一个恐怖的黑夜？

Great as are the preoccupations absorbing us at home, concerned as we are with matters that deeply affect our livelihood today and our vision of the future, each of these domestic problems is dwarfed by, and often even created by, this question that involves all humankind.

这些疑虑使得我们在国内坐立难安，影响这我们今天的日常生活以及对未来的判断，这一事关全人类的问题，也导致我国国内的许多问题难以解决，甚至是部分问题的根源。

This trial comes at a moment when man's power to achieve good or to inflict evil surpasses the brightest hopes and the sharpest fears of all ages. We can turn rivers in their courses, level mountains to the plains. Oceans and land and sky are avenues for our colossal commerce. Disease diminishes and life lengthens.

现在，人类掌握了空前强大的力量，以之行善，可以带来最闪耀的光芒，以之行恶，则可以带来最恐怖的黑暗，而上述问题，恰巧在此时降临。我们可以调整河流走向，将山峰改造为平原。我们的贸易规模巨大，途径囊括海陆空。疾病得以消灭，寿命得以延长。

Yet the promise of this life is imperiled by the very genius that has made it possible. Nations amass wealth. Labor sweats to create--and turns out devices to level not only mountains but also cities. Science seems ready to confer upon us, as its final gift, the power to erase human life from this planet.

人类运用智慧成就了这一美好生活，然而这一智慧同样威胁着人类美好生活的前景。国家聚敛着财富。工人挥汗如雨地劳作——他们创造的工具，不仅能将山峰改造成平原，也能将城市夷为平地。似乎，这就是科技送给人类的最后一份礼物，即自我毁灭的力量。

At such a time in history, we who are free must proclaim anew our faith. This faith is the abiding creed of our fathers. It is our faith in the deathless dignity of man, governed by eternal moral and natural laws.

 

历史进入这一时期，我们自由人必须重申我们的信念。这一我们祖辈世代坚守的信念。我们相信，道德法则和自然法则长盛不息，而万古长存的人类尊严，必须受到前者制约。

This faith defines our full view of life. It establishes, beyond debate, those gifts of the Creator that are man's inalienable rights, and that make all men equal in His sight.

这一信念诠释了我们的生活观。无可置否，造物主赋予了人类不可剥夺的权利，上帝面前，人人平等。

In the light of this equality, we know that the virtues most cherished by free people--love of truth, pride of work, devotion to country--all are treasures equally precious in the lives of the most humble and of the most exalted. The men who mine coal and fire furnaces and balance ledgers and turn lathes and pick cotton and heal the sick and plant corn--all serve as proudly, and as profitably, for America as the statesmen who draft treaties and the legislators who enact laws.

平等的光芒闪耀之下，我们还看到了自由人民最珍视的品质——热爱真理、自豪工作、忠于祖国——无论是最朴素无华的大众，还是最出类拔萃的精英，都视这些品质为最宝贵的财富。各行各业的人们，无论是挖掘煤炭、填火烧炉的，计算账单、采摘棉花、救死扶伤、种植谷物——亦或是起草条约的政治家和制定法律的立法者，都自豪地为国服务，并从中得惠。

This faith rules our whole way of life. It decrees that we, the people, elect leaders not to rule but to serve. It asserts that we have the right to choice of our own work and to the reward of our own toil. It inspires the initiative that makes our productivity the wonder of the world. And it warns that any man who seeks to deny equality among all his brothers betrays the spirit of the free and invites the mockery of the tyrant.

这一信念主导了我们的生活。这一信念宣示，我们人民选举出领袖，领袖不是统治者，而是服务者。该信念宣示，我们有权利选择自己的工作，并得到自己辛勤劳作的报酬。该信念激发我们的能动性，让我们创造出举世瞩目的生产力。该信念警告，任何胆敢否定自己同胞平等权的行为，都是对自由精神的背叛，极可能招致暴政。

It is because we, all of us, hold to these principles that the political changes accomplished this day do not imply turbulence, upheaval or disorder. Rather this change expresses a purpose of strengthening our dedication and devotion to the precepts of our founding documents, a conscious renewal of faith in our country and in the watchfulness of a Divine Providence.

正是因为我们所有人都坚定着这些理念，所以我们今天的政治变革才不会致使混乱动荡。恰恰相反，我们的变革代表我们愿意进一步献身我国的立国文献，在上帝的见证下，再次表明我们对祖国的信念。

The enemies of this faith know no god but force, no devotion but its use. They tutor men in treason. They feed upon the hunger of others. Whatever defies them, they torture, especially the truth.

而反对我们信念的人，他们不认上帝，只认武力，不愿奉献，只知索取。他们教唆人们叛国。他们藉他人的饥饿以自肥。无论什么违抗了他们的意志，都会招致他们反对，尤其是真理。

Here, then, is joined no argument between slightly differing philosophies. This conflict strikes directly at the faith of our fathers and the lives of our sons. No principle or treasure that we hold, from the spiritual knowledge of our free schools and churches to the creative magic of free labor and capital, nothing lies safely beyond the reach of this struggle.

而在美国，人们的政治观点差异较小时，根本就不会爆发争论。而敌方与我们的这场观点冲突，矛头直指我们祖辈的信仰和我们子孙的生活。从我们在自由学校和教堂中汲取的精神知识，到我们用劳动和财富创造出的奇迹，我们的一切理念财富都受到了这场对抗的威胁。

Freedom is pitted against slavery; lightness against the dark.

 

奴隶制正在侵蚀自由制度；黑暗正在污染光明。

The faith we hold belongs not to us alone but to the free of all the world. This common bond binds the grower of rice in Burma and the planter of wheat in Iowa, the shepherd in southern Italy and the mountaineer in the Andes. It confers a common dignity upon the French soldier who dies in Indo-China, the British soldier killed in Malaya, the American life given in Korea.

 

我们的信念的拥护者远不止我们，还有整个自由世界。在这一纽带的作用下，缅甸的水稻农和爱荷华州的小麦农团结一致，南意大利的牧羊人和安迪斯山脉上的登山者并肩前行。战死于印度支那的法军士兵，殒命马来西亚的英军士兵，还有牺牲在朝鲜的美军士兵，都是为了这一共同伟大理想而献身。

We know, beyond this, that we are linked to all free peoples not merely by a noble idea but by a simple need. No free people can for long cling to any privilege or enjoy any safety in economic solitude. For all our own material might, even we need markets in the world for the surpluses of our farms and our factories. Equally, we need for these same farms and factories vital materials and products of distant lands. This basic law of interdependence, so manifest in the commerce of peace, applies with thousand-fold intensity in the event of war.

我们还知道，联结我们和其他自由国家的，除了高尚的理念之外，还有客观的需求。经济上闭关锁国的自由国家，不可能安全长久。哪怕是美国这样的强大国家，也需要世界市场来出售盈余的农产品和工业品。同样，我们也需要异国他乡工厂农场生产出的产品。这一相互依存的基本法则，在和平时期的贸易中便显而易见，在战争时期更是让人有切身体会。

So we are persuaded by necessity and by belief that the strength of all free peoples lies in unity; their danger, in discord.

所以我们自由国家必须联合到到一起，我们认为只有这样，我们才能发挥出真正强大的力量；而如果我们各自为战的话，则会徒增危险。

To produce this unity, to meet the challenge of our time, destiny has laid upon our country the responsibility of the free world's leadership.

为团结自由国家，为应对本时代的挑战，领导自由世界的天命降临到了美国的身上。

So it is proper that we assure our friends once again that, in the discharge of this responsibility, we Americans know and we observe the difference between world leadership and imperialism; between firmness and truculence; between a thoughtfully calculated goal and spasmodic reaction to the stimulus of emergencies.

 

所以，我们再一次向我们的友邦承诺，我们美国人在受命于天的同时，会明辨世界领袖作为和帝国主义作为；会明辨坚定和刻薄；会明辨哪些是我们精心计划后的目标，哪些是我们临时推出的应急措施。

We wish our friends the world over to know this above all: we face the threat--not with dread and confusion--but with confidence and conviction.

我们希望，我们在世界各地的友邦都能首先明白：我们要共同面对挑战——不要害怕，不要疑惑——要勇敢且坚定。

We feel this moral strength because we know that we are not helpless prisoners of history. We are free men. We shall remain free, never to be proven guilty of the one capital offense against freedom, a lack of stanch faith.

 

我们能感受到自己的道义号召力，因为我们甚至，我们不是终将被历史淘汰的无助囚徒。我们是自由人。我们会捍卫自由，我们绝不会反过来对抗自由，绝不会丧失信仰。

In pleading our just cause before the bar of history and in pressing our labor for world peace, we shall be guided by certain fixed principles.

在历史裁决我们的正义事业之际，在我们为世界和平操劳之际，我们应严格遵守一些原则。

These principles are:

原则如下：

(1) Abhorring war as a chosen way to balk the purposes of those who threaten us, we hold it to be the first task of statesmanship to develop the strength that will deter the forces of aggression and promote the conditions of peace. For, as it must be the supreme purpose of all free men, so it must be the dedication of their leaders, to save humanity from preying upon itself.

 

(1)我们从道义层面痛恨战争，以战争手段对抗威胁我们的敌人并非可选项，我们认为，政治家的首要目标应该是大力发展足以挫败侵略的力量，以维护和平。这是全体自由国家的首要目标，因此自由国家的领导人一到要为此奋斗，防止人类再次自相残杀。

In the light of this principle, we stand ready to engage with any and all others in joint effort to remove the causes of mutual fear and distrust among nations, so as to make possible drastic reduction of armaments. The sole requisites for undertaking such effort are that--in their purpose--they be aimed logically and honestly toward secure peace for all; and that--in their result-- they provide methods by which every participating nation will prove good faith in carrying out its pledge.

 

据此原则，我们愿意同各国齐心协力，共同消除国际的互相恐惧和互不信任，以及推动军备裁减事业。完成这一事业只有两大前提条件——从目的方面来说——各国必须是真心实意，且能有条不紊地推动人类安全和平事业发展；从结果方面来说——各参与国也能够以此证明自己愿意履行捍卫世界和平的豪言壮语。

(2) Realizing that common sense and common decency alike dictate the futility of appeasement, we shall never try to placate an aggressor by the false and wicked bargain of trading honor for security. Americans, indeed all free men, remember that in the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains.

(2)我们于情于理都要认识到，绥靖政策是无用的，我们绝不能靠着无用卑鄙的谈判，出卖荣誉安抚侵略者，换取一夕安寝。美国人，事实上，全体自由人都必须记住，面临最终选择时，成为士兵背上行军包，要比成为奴隶戴上枷锁更为轻松。

(3) Knowing that only a United States that is strong and immensely productive can help defend freedom in our world, we view our Nation's strength and security as a trust upon which rests the hope of free men everywhere. It is the firm duty of each of our free citizens and of every free citizen everywhere to place the cause of his country before the comfort, the convenience of himself.

(3)我们要明白，现在只有美国有足够强大的军事力量和生产力，足以捍卫自由世界，只要美国国力强盛，安居一方，世界各地的自由人便永远不会丧失希望。美国的每一名自由公民，以及全世界的每一名自由公民，都有义务将国家事业置于自己个人生活的舒适便利之上。

(4) Honoring the identity and the special heritage of each nation in the world, we shall never use our strength to try to impress upon another people our own cherished political and economic institutions.

 

(4)我们要尊重世界各国的选择，及其独特历史遗产，我们十分热爱自己的政治经济制度，但是我们绝不能使用武力将之强加给其他国家。

(5) Assessing realistically the needs and capacities of proven friends of freedom, we shall strive to help them to achieve their own security and well-being. Likewise, we shall count upon them to assume, within the limits of their resources, their full and just burdens in the common defense of freedom.

(5)我们要实事求是地评估我们自由友邦的需求和国力，并努力帮助他们捍卫自身的安全幸福。但同样，我们希望他们能在自身能力范围之内，全力与我们并肩捍卫自由。

(6) Recognizing economic health as an indispensable basis of military strength and the free world's peace, we shall strive to foster everywhere, and to practice ourselves, policies that encourage productivity and profitable trade. For the impoverishment of any single people in the world means danger to the well-being of all other peoples.

(6)我们要意识到，经济稳定是军事强大不可或缺的基础，也是自由世界和平安宁的基石，因此我们要努力在世界各地推行我们的经济政策，促进各国提高产能，扩大双方互惠贸易。毕竟任何一个国家陷入贫苦，都可能对全世界其他国家的幸福造成威胁。

(7) Appreciating that economic need, military security and political wisdom combine to suggest regional groupings of free peoples, we hope, within the framework of the United Nations, to help strengthen such special bonds the world over. The nature of these ties must vary with the different problems of different areas.

(7)我们要认识到，自由国家间成立地域组织，是处于经济需求、军事安全和政治考量，我们希望在联合国的框架下，助力加强世界各国的特殊纽带。这些纽带的性质，也随着地域不同、问题不同而大相径庭。

In the Western Hemisphere, we enthusiastically join with all our neighbors in the work of perfecting a community of fraternal trust and common purpose.

在西半球，我们积极地同各邻国联合起来，我们出于兄弟般的信任，为了共同的目标，而不断完善美洲共同体。

In Europe, we ask that enlightened and inspired leaders of the Western nations strive with renewed vigor to make the unity of their peoples a reality. Only as free Europe unitedly marshals its strength can it effectively safeguard, even with our help, its spiritual and cultural heritage.

在欧洲，我们邀请西欧各国受到美国感召的领导人，同我们一起实现西方世界大团结。只有自由欧洲能齐心协力，他们才能在美国的帮助下，守护自己的精神文化遗产。

(8) Conceiving the defense of freedom, like freedom itself, to be one and indivisible, we hold all continents and peoples in equal regard and honor. We reject any insinuation that one race or another, one people or another, is in any sense inferior or expendable.

(8)我们要清楚，捍卫自由，就跟自由本身一样，是必不可少的，我们同等地对待尊重各洲各国。任何意图暗示某个种族、某个国家低人一等，属于耗材的思想言论，我们都一概拒绝。

(9) Respecting the United Nations as the living sign of all people's hope for peace, we shall strive to make it not merely an eloquent symbol but an effective force. And in our quest for an honorable peace, we shall neither compromise, nor tire, nor ever cease.

(9)我们要尊重联合国，联合国是全人类向往和平的生动证明，我们要全力支持联合国，使之不仅能为人类发声，还能为人类发力。我们要追求光荣的和平，我们绝不妥协、决不放弃、绝不止步。

By these rules of conduct, we hope to be known to all peoples.

 

我们希望，全世界都能通过上述行为准则清楚美国的意图。

By their observance, an earth of peace may become not a vision but a fact.

只要各国都能遵循上述原则，世界和平将指日可待。

This hope--this supreme aspiration--must rule the way we live.

 

我们必须要将这一希望——这一人类的最终愿景——贯彻到我们的生活方式中。

We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose.

我们必须愿意为祖国献出一切。因为历史不会将捍卫自由的重任，交付给弱者和懦夫。我们必须全力以赴地捍卫自由，持之以恒地传播自由。

We must be willing, individually and as a Nation, to accept whatever sacrifices may be required of us. A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

无论是我们个人，还是我们国家，都必须要愿意为自由做出任何牺牲。如果一个民族决定存权失信，那么最终只能权信皆失。

These basic precepts are not lofty abstractions, far removed from matters of daily living. They are laws of spiritual strength that generate and define our material strength. Patriotism means equipped forces and a prepared citizenry. Moral stamina means more energy and more productivity, on the farm and in the factory. Love of liberty means the guarding of every resource that makes freedom possible--from the sanctity of our families and the wealth of our soil to the genius of our scientists.

上述认知并不高深抽象，并不脱离我们的日常生活实际。这些认识，就是我们精神力量的法则，界定并给予了我们物质力量。爱国主义不仅需要装备精良的军队，还意味着敢于牺牲的公民。坚守道德要求我们更加努力地提高工业农业产能。热爱自由要求我们捍卫自由的一切源泉——从我们深爱的家庭、富饶的土地，到我国科学家的智慧才能。

And so each citizen plays an indispensable role. The productivity of our heads, our hands, and our hearts is the source of all the strength we can command, for both the enrichment of our lives and the winning of the peace.

因此，每一名公民都不可或缺。我们用头脑、用双手、用心灵创造的一切，就是我们在改善生活、捍卫和平时所拥有的力量。

No person, no home, no community can be beyond the reach of this call. We are summoned to act in wisdom and in conscience, to work with industry, to teach with persuasion, to preach with conviction, to weigh our every deed with care and with compassion. For this truth must be clear before us: whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.

任何人、任何家庭、任何地区都不能漠视本次召唤。历史号召我们运用智慧，遵循良知，采取行动，要求我们辛勤劳作，耐心施教，诚信传教，真心热情地对待每一件事。我们必须认清这一真理：如果美国希望为世界带来什么改变，那么这一改变就必须在美国的内核率先实现。

The peace we seek, then, is nothing less than the practice and fulfillment of our whole faith among ourselves and in our dealings with others. This signifies more than the stilling of guns, easing the sorrow of war. More than escape from death, it is a way of life. More than a haven for the weary, it is a hope for the brave.

我们追求的和平，就是我们彼此相处、对外交往时，所秉持信念的完全贯彻落实。我们追求的和平，不仅仅是枪声沉寂，战火消散。不仅是逃离死亡之路，还是通往新生之路。不仅是弱者的避风港，还是勇者的新希望。

This is the hope that beckons us onward in this century of trial. This is the work that awaits us all, to be done with bravery, with charity, and with prayer to Almighty God.

这一希望召唤着我们度过本世纪的考验。这是我们所有人都要拿出勇气、博爱完成的事业，原全能的上帝保佑我们。