My fellow Americans: 我的美国同胞们：
Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor. 三天后，在为国家服务半个世纪之后，我将在传统而庄严的仪式中卸下总统职责，将总统权力移交予我的继任者。
This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen. 今晚，我怀着告别之情来到你们面前，与你们——我的同胞们——分享一些最后的思考。
Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all. 和其他每一位公民一样，我祝愿新总统及所有与他共事的人一切顺利。我祈祷未来的岁月将为所有人带来和平与繁荣。
Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the Nation. 我国人民期望他们的总统和国会在重大问题上达成基本共识，明智地解决这些问题将更好地塑造国家的未来。
My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and, finally, to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years. 我与国会的关系始于很久以前，当时一位参议员任命我进入西点军校，那是一种遥远而脆弱的关系。后来在战争及战后时期，这种关系变得亲密，而在过去八年中，最终发展为相互依存。
In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the national good rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the Nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling, on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together. 在这种最终的关系中，国会和政府在大多数重要问题上合作良好，服务于国家利益而非单纯的党派之争，从而确保了国家事务的顺利推进。因此，我与国会的官方关系以感激之情结束——感激我们能够共同完成如此之多的事业。
We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment. 我们现在正处于一个见证了伟大国家间四次重大战争的世纪的中点十年之后。其中三次战争涉及我们自己的国家。尽管经历了这些浩劫，美国今天仍是世界上最强大、最具影响力和生产力最高的国家。我们为这种卓越地位感到自豪是可以理解的，但我们也认识到，美国的领导地位和声望不仅取决于我们无与伦比的物质进步、财富和军事实力，还取决于我们如何为世界和平与人类福祉的利益使用我们的力量。
Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad. 在整个美国自由政府的历程中，我们的基本目标一直是维护和平；促进人类成就的进步，并增进人与人之间、国与国之间的自由、尊严和正直。追求更少将不配作为自由和有信仰的人民。任何可归因于傲慢、缺乏理解或不愿牺牲的失败，都将在国内外给我们造成严重伤害。
Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology--global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle--with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment. 朝着这些崇高目标的进步持续受到当前席卷世界的冲突的威胁。它占据了我们全部的注意力，耗尽了我们的全部精力。我们面临着一种敌对的意识形态——其范围是全球性的，其性质是无神论的，其目的是冷酷无情的，其方法是阴险狡诈的。不幸的是，它构成的危险预计将持续不确定的时间。要成功应对这一危险，所需的不是危机时期那种情绪化和短暂的牺牲，而是那些使我们能够稳步、坚定且毫无怨言地承受长期而复杂斗争重担的牺牲——自由是赌注。只有这样，我们才能在一切挑衅面前，继续沿着我们既定的道路走向永久和平与人类福祉。
Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research--these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel. 危机还将继续出现。在应对危机时，无论是外交还是内政，无论大小，人们总是倾向于认为某些引人注目的昂贵行动可以成为解决当前所有困难的神奇方案。大幅增加我们国防的新要素；制定不切实际的计划来解决农业中的每一个问题；大幅扩展基础研究和应用研究——这些以及许多其他可能性，每个本身可能都很有前景，可能被建议作为我们希望走的道路的唯一途径。
But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs-balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage--balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration. 但每项提议都必须从更广泛的角度来权衡：需要在国家计划内部和之间保持平衡——私营经济和公共经济之间的平衡，成本和预期利益之间的平衡——明确必要的和舒适可取的之间的平衡；国家基本需求与国家对个人施加的职责之间的平衡；当前行动与国家未来福祉之间的平衡。良好的判断力追求平衡与进步；缺乏判断力最终会导致失衡与挫折。
The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only. 数十年的记录证明，我国人民及其政府在压力和威胁面前，大体上理解了这些真理并做出了良好的回应。但新类型或新程度的威胁不断出现。我仅提及两点。
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. 维护和平的一个关键要素是我们的军事机构。我们的武装力量必须强大，随时准备立即行动，以便任何潜在的侵略者都不敢冒险自取灭亡。
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea. 我们今天的军事组织与我任何一位和平时期的前任所了解的，甚至与二战或朝鲜战争的战士们所了解的，都几乎没有关系。
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. 直到最近一次世界冲突之前，美国没有军备工业。美国的犁铧制造商可以在需要时制造刀剑。但现在我们再也不能冒险进行国防应急临时准备；我们被迫创建了一个规模庞大的永久性军备工业。除此之外，三百五十万男女直接从事国防机构的工作。我们每年在军事安全上的支出超过所有美国公司的净收入。
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual--is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. 这种庞大的军事机构与大型军备工业的结合在美国历史上是前所未有的。其总影响力——经济、政治，甚至精神上的——在每个城市、每个州议会大厦、联邦政府的每个办公室都能感受到。我们认识到这种发展的迫切需要。然而，我们绝不能忽视其严重影响。我们的辛劳、资源和生计都涉及其中；我们社会的结构也是如此。
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. 在政府的会议中，我们必须警惕军事-工业复合体获取不正当的影响力，无论这种影响力是主动寻求的还是被动获得的。不当权力灾难性增长的可能性存在，并将持续存在。
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. 我们绝不能让这种结合的重量危及我们的自由或民主进程。我们不应想当然。只有警觉而知情的公民才能迫使庞大的国防工业和军事机器与我们和平的方法和目标适当协调，使安全与自由能够共同繁荣。
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades. 在最近几十年的技术革命中，我们的军事-工业态势发生了全面变化，而这在很大程度上应归因于这场革命。
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government. 在这场革命中，研究已成为核心；它也变得更加形式化、复杂化和昂贵。越来越大的份额是由联邦政府进行、资助或指导的。
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers. 今天，独自在车间里摆弄的发明者已经被实验室和试验场中的科学家团队所取代。同样，历史上作为自由思想和科学发现源泉的自由大学，在研究方式上经历了一场革命。部分由于涉及的巨大成本，政府合同实际上成为了求知欲的替代品。每一块旧黑板现在都对应着数百台新的电子计算机。
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present--and is gravely to be regarded. 联邦政府的雇佣、项目分配和金钱力量支配国家学者的前景始终存在——这是必须严肃对待的。
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite. 然而，在尊重科学研究和发现的同时，我们也必须警惕同样巨大的相反危险：公共政策本身可能沦为科学技术精英的俘虏。
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system--ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society. 政治家的任务是在我们民主制度的原则范围内，塑造、平衡并整合这些及其他新旧力量——始终朝着我们自由社会的最高目标前进。
Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we--you and I, and our government-must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow. 维持平衡的另一个因素涉及时间要素。当我们展望社会的未来时，我们——你们和我，以及我们的政府——必须避免只为今天而活的冲动，为了我们自己的安逸和便利，掠夺明天宝贵的资源。我们不能在抵押孙辈物质资产的同时，不冒着失去他们政治和精神遗产的风险。我们希望民主能为所有后代延续下去，而不是成为明天无力偿还的幻影。
Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. 在尚未书写的漫长历史道路上，美国知道，我们这个日益缩小的世界必须避免成为一个充满恐惧和仇恨的可怕社区，而应成为一个充满相互信任和尊重的自豪联盟。
Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield. 这样的联盟必须是平等者的联盟。最弱小的国家也必须像我们一样满怀信心地来到谈判桌前，正如我们受到道德、经济和军事力量的保护一样。那张桌子虽然因过去许多挫折而伤痕累累，但不能因为战场上必然的痛苦而被放弃。
Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war--as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years--I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight. 在相互尊重和信任的基础上裁军是一项持续的迫切需要。我们必须共同学会如何用智慧和高尚的目的，而不是用武器，来解决分歧。由于这种需要如此迫切和明显，我承认，在这一领域卸下我的官方职责时，我感到一种明确的失望。作为一个目睹过战争恐怖和挥之不去悲伤的人——作为一个知道另一场战争可能彻底摧毁数千年来缓慢而痛苦地建立起来的文明的人——我希望今晚能说持久和平已经在望。
Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road. 令人欣慰的是，我可以说战争已经避免。我们在朝着最终目标稳步前进。但是，还有很多事情要做。作为一名普通公民，我将永远尽我所能帮助世界沿着这条道路前进。
So--in this my last good night to you as your President--I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find some things worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future. 因此——在这我作为总统对你们的最后一个美好夜晚——我感谢你们在战争与和平时期给予我众多公共服务的机会。我相信，在这些服务中你们会发现一些值得称道的东西；至于其他方面，我知道你们会在未来找到改进的方法。
You and I--my fellow citizens--need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation's great goals. 你们和我——我的同胞们——需要坚定信念，相信所有国家在上帝之下将实现和平与正义的目标。愿我们始终坚定不移地致力于原则，自信而谦逊地运用权力，勤奋地追求国家的伟大目标。
To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America's prayerful and continuing aspiration: 对世界各国人民，我再次表达美国虔诚而持续的愿望：
We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love. 我们祈祷所有信仰、所有种族、所有国家的人民都能满足他们伟大的人类需求；那些现在被剥夺机会的人将充分享有机会；所有渴望自由的人都能体验到自由的精神祝福；那些拥有自由的人也将理解自由的沉重责任；所有对他人需求麻木不仁的人将学会仁慈；贫困、疾病和无知的祸害将从地球上消失；并且，在时间的善意中，所有人民将在相互尊重和爱的约束力所保障的和平中共同生活。