My fellow citizens: 同胞们：
I have requested this opportunity to talk to the people of Massachusetts about the tragedy which happened last Friday evening. This morning I entered a plea of guilty to the charge of leaving the scene of an accident. Prior to my appearance in court it would have been improper for me to comment on these matters. But tonight I am free to tell you what happened and to say what it means to me. 我请求这个机会，向马萨诸塞州人民讲述上周五晚上发生的悲剧。今天早上，我对肇事逃逸的指控认罪。在出庭之前，我不便对这些事情发表评论。但今晚，我可以自由地告诉你们发生了什么，以及这件事对我意味着什么。
On the weekend of July 18th, I was on Martha's Vineyard Island participating with my nephew, Joe Kennedy -- as for thirty years my family has participated -- in the annual Edgartown Sailing Regatta. Only reasons of health prevented my wife from accompanying me. 7月18日周末，我在玛莎葡萄园岛与我的侄子乔·肯尼迪一起参加年度埃德加敦帆船赛——三十年来，我的家人一直参加这项活动。由于健康原因，我的妻子未能陪同我。
On Chappaquiddick Island, off Martha's Vineyard, I attended, on Friday evening, July 18th, a cook-out I had encouraged and helped sponsor for a devoted group of Kennedy campaign secretaries. When I left the party, around 11:15pm, I was accompanied by one of these girls, Miss Mary Jo Kopechne. 7月18日周五晚上，在玛莎葡萄园岛附近的查帕奎迪克岛上，我参加了一场由我鼓励并赞助的烧烤聚会，参与者是一群忠诚的肯尼迪竞选秘书。晚上11点15分左右我离开聚会时，与其中一位女孩玛丽·乔·科佩奇内同行。
Mary Jo was one of the most devoted members of the staff of Senator Robert Kennedy. She worked for him for four years and was broken up over his death. For this reason, and because she was such a gentle, kind, and idealistic person, all of us tried to help her feel that she still had a home with the Kennedy family. 玛丽·乔是罗伯特·肯尼迪参议员最忠诚的工作人员之一。她为他工作了四年，对他的去世悲痛万分。出于这个原因，也因为她是如此温柔、善良和理想主义的人，我们所有人都努力帮助她感觉到在肯尼迪家族中仍然有一个家。
There is no truth, no truth whatever, to the widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct that have been leveled at my behavior and hers regarding that evening. There has never been a private relationship between us of any kind. I know of nothing in Mary Jo's conduct on that or any other occasion -- and the same is true of the other girls at that party -- that would lend any substance to such ugly speculation about their character. Nor was I driving under the influence of liquor. 关于那天晚上我和她的行为，流传着许多关于不道德行为的猜疑，但这些完全没有事实根据。我们之间从来没有任何形式的私人关系。我知道玛丽·乔在那天或任何其他场合的行为——聚会上的其他女孩也是如此——都不会为这些对她们品格的丑陋猜测提供任何依据。我当时也没有酒后驾车。
Little over one mile away, the car that I was driving on an unlit road went off a narrow bridge which had no guard rails and was built on a left angle to the road. The car overturned in a deep pond and immediately filled with water. I remember thinking as the cold water rushed in around my head that I was for certain drowning. Then water entered my lungs and I actually felt the sensation of drowning. But somehow I struggled to the surface alive. 在一英里多一点的地方，我驾驶的汽车在一条没有灯光的路上冲出了一座狭窄的桥，这座桥没有护栏，而且与道路呈左角建造。汽车翻入深潭，立即被水淹没。我记得当冰冷的水在我头顶涌入时，我以为自己肯定要淹死了。然后水进入了我的肺部，我真切地感受到了溺水的感觉。但不知怎么的，我挣扎着活了下来。
I made immediate and repeated efforts to save Mary Jo by diving into the strong and murky current, but succeeded only in increasing my state of utter exhaustion and alarm. My conduct and conversations during the next several hours, to the extent that I can remember them, make no sense to me at all. 我立即反复努力潜入湍急浑浊的水流中营救玛丽·乔，但只是让自己更加疲惫和惊慌。在接下来的几个小时里，我的行为和谈话——就我所能记得的而言——对我来说毫无意义。
Although my doctors informed me that I suffered a cerebral concussion, as well as shock, I do not seek to escape responsibility for my actions by placing the blame either on the physical and emotional trauma brought on by the accident, or on anyone else. 虽然我的医生告诉我，我遭受了脑震荡和休克，但我不打算将责任归咎于事故造成的身心创伤或其他人，以逃避我行为的责任。
I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately. 我认为我没有立即向警方报告事故这一事实是无可辩解的。
Instead of looking directly for a telephone after lying exhausted in the grass for an undetermined time, I walked back to the cottage where the party was being held and requested the help of two friends, my cousin, Joseph Gargan and Phil Markham, and directed them to return immediately to the scene with me -- this was sometime after midnight -- in order to undertake a new effort to dive down and locate Miss Kopechne. Their strenuous efforts, undertaken at some risk to their own lives, also proved futile. 在草地上疲惫地躺了一段时间后，我没有直接去找电话，而是走回了聚会的小屋，请求两位朋友——我的表弟约瑟夫·加根和菲尔·马克汉姆——的帮助，并指示他们在午夜过后立即和我一起返回现场，以便再次尝试潜水寻找科佩奇内小姐。他们冒着生命危险做出的努力也证明是徒劳的。
All kinds of scrambled thoughts -- all of them confused, some of them irrational, many of them which I cannot recall, and some of which I would not have seriously entertained under normal circumstances -- went through my mind during this period. 各种各样混乱的想法——所有这些想法都很混乱，有些是不合理的，许多我无法回忆起来，有些在正常情况下我根本不会认真考虑——在这段时间里在我的脑海中闪过。
They were reflected in the various inexplicable, inconsistent, and inconclusive things I said and did, including such questions as whether the girl might still be alive somewhere out of that immediate area, whether some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys, whether there was some justifiable reason for me to doubt what had happened and to delay my report, whether somehow the awful weight of this incredible incident might in some way pass from my shoulders. I was overcome, I'm frank to say, by a jumble of emotions: grief, fear, doubt, exhaustion, panic, confusion, and shock. 这些想法反映在我所说和所做的各种令人费解、不一致和不确定的事情中，包括诸如那个女孩是否可能还活着、是否真的有某种可怕的诅咒笼罩着所有肯尼迪家族成员、是否有正当理由让我怀疑发生了什么并推迟报告、是否某种程度上这个不可思议的事件的可怕重量可能会以某种方式从我肩上卸下等问题。坦率地说，我被一种混乱的情绪所压倒：悲伤、恐惧、怀疑、疲惫、恐慌、困惑和震惊。
Instructing Gargan and Markham not to alarm Mary Jo's friends that night, I had them take me to the ferry crossing. The ferry having shut down for the night, I suddenly jumped into the water and impulsively swam across, nearly drowning once again in the effort, and returned to my hotel about 2:00am -- and collapsed in my room. I remember going out at one point and saying something to the room clerk. 我指示加根和马克汉姆当晚不要惊动玛丽·乔的朋友们，让他们带我去渡口。渡轮已经停运，我突然跳入水中，冲动地游了过去，差点再次溺水，大约凌晨2点回到了我的酒店——并在房间里崩溃了。我记得有一次出去对房间服务员说了些什么。
In the morning, with my mind somewhat more lucid, I made an effort to call a family legal advisor, Burke Marshall, from a public telephone on the Chappaquiddick side of the ferry and then belatedly reported the accident to the Martha's Vineyard police. 第二天早上，我的头脑稍微清醒了一些，我努力从渡口查帕奎迪克一侧的公共电话给家庭法律顾问伯克·马歇尔打电话，然后才迟报了事故给玛莎葡萄园警方。
Today, as I mentioned, I felt morally obligated to plead guilty to the charge of leaving the scene of an accident. No words on my part can possibly express the terrible pain and suffering I feel over this tragic incident. This last week has been an agonizing one for me and for the members of my family. And the grief we feel over the loss of a wonderful friend will remain with us the rest of our lives. 今天，正如我提到的，我在道义上有责任对肇事逃逸的指控认罪。我的任何言辞都无法表达我对这一悲惨事件所感到的可怕痛苦和悲伤。过去这一周对我和我的家人来说是痛苦的一周。我们对失去一位好朋友的悲痛将伴随我们一生。
These events, the publicity, innuendo, and whispers which have surrounded them and my admission of guilt this morning raises the question in my mind of whether my standing among the people of my State has been so impaired that I should resign my seat in the United States Senate. If at any time the citizens of Massachusetts should lack confidence in their Senator's character, or his ability -- with or without justification -- he could not in my opinion adequately perform his duties and should not continue in office. 这些事件、宣传、暗示和耳语，以及我今天早上承认有罪，让我思考一个问题：我在本州人民中的地位是否已经受到如此严重的损害，以至于我应该辞去美国参议院的席位。如果马萨诸塞州的公民在任何时候对他们参议员的品格或能力——无论是否有正当理由——缺乏信心，我认为他无法充分履行职责，不应继续任职。
The people of this State, the State which sent John Quincy Adams, and Daniel Webster, and Charles Sumner, and Henry Cabot Lodge, and John Kennedy to the United States Senate are entitled to representation in that body by men who inspire their utmost confidence. For this reason, I would understand full well why some might think it right for me to resign. For me, this will be a difficult decision to make. 这个州的人民——这个派出约翰·昆西·亚当斯、丹尼尔·韦伯斯特、查尔斯·萨姆纳、亨利·卡伯特·洛奇和约翰·肯尼迪到美国参议院的州——有权在参议院获得能激发他们最大信心的人的代表。因此，我完全理解为什么有些人可能认为我辞职是正确的。对我来说，这将是一个艰难的决定。
It has been seven years since my first election to the Senate. You and I share many memories -- some of them have been glorious, some have been very sad. The opportunity to work with you and serve Massachusetts has made my life worthwhile. 我第一次当选参议员已经七年了。你和我分享了许多回忆——其中一些是光荣的，一些是非常悲伤的。有机会与你们一起工作并为马萨诸塞州服务使我的生命有了价值。
And so I ask you tonight, the people of Massachusetts, to think this through with me. In facing this decision, I seek your advice and opinion. In making it, I seek your prayers -- for this is a decision that I will have finally to make on my own. 所以今晚我请求你们，马萨诸塞州的人民，和我一起思考这个问题。在面对这个决定时，我寻求你们的建议和意见。在做出决定时，我寻求你们的祈祷——因为这是一个我最终必须自己做出的决定。
It has been written: 有句话说得好：
A man does what he must -- in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles, and dangers, and pressures -- and that is the basis of all human morality. 一个人必须做他必须做的事——不管个人后果，不管障碍、危险和压力——这是所有人类道德的基础。
...whatever may be the sacrifices he faces, if he follows his conscience -- the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow man -- each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of the past courage cannot supply courage itself. For this, each man must look into his own soul. ……无论他面临什么牺牲，如果他遵循自己的良心——失去朋友、财富、满足感，甚至同胞的尊重——每个人都必须自己决定他将走的道路。过去的勇气故事不能提供勇气本身。为此，每个人都必须审视自己的灵魂。
I pray that I can have the courage to make the right decision. Whatever is decided, whatever the future holds for me, I hope that I shall be able to put this most recent tragedy behind me and make some further contribution to our state and mankind -- whether it be in public or private life. 我祈祷我能有勇气做出正确的决定。无论做出什么决定，无论未来对我有什么安排，我希望我能够将这最近的悲剧抛在脑后，并为我们的州和人类做出一些进一步的贡献——无论是在公共生活还是私人生活中。
Thank you and good night. 谢谢大家，晚安。