Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the Congress: 议长先生、总统先生、各位议员：
I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy. I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause. 今晚我为人类的尊严和民主的命运而演讲。我敦促两党的每一位成员，所有宗教信仰、所有肤色的美国人，来自这个国家每一个地区的同胞，都加入我的这一事业。
At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There, long-suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. One good man, a man of God, was killed. 历史和命运有时会在某个特定时刻、某个特定地点交汇，塑造人类永无止境追求自由的转折点。列克星敦和康科德是如此，一个世纪前的阿波马托克斯是如此，上周在阿拉巴马州塞尔玛也是如此。在那里，长期遭受苦难的男女和平抗议被剥夺作为美国人的权利。许多人遭到野蛮袭击。一位善良的人，一位上帝的信徒，被杀害了。
There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in what is happening here tonight. For the cries of pain and the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned into convocation all the majesty of this great government -- the government of the greatest nation on earth. Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man. 对于塞尔玛发生的事情，没有任何值得骄傲的理由。对于数百万美国人长期被剥夺平等权利，没有任何自满的理由。但是，今晚在这里发生的事情，给我们的民主带来了希望和信念。因为受压迫人民的痛苦呐喊、赞美诗和抗议，已经召唤出这个伟大政府的全部威严——地球上最伟大国家的政府。我们的使命既是这个国家最古老的，也是最基本的：匡扶正义，伸张公理，服务人民。
In our time we have come to live with the moments of great crisis. Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues -- issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression. 在我们这个时代，我们已经习惯了重大危机时刻。我们的生活被关于重大问题的辩论所标记——战争与和平的问题，繁荣与萧条的问题。
But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, or our welfare or our security, but rather to the values, and the purposes, and the meaning of our beloved nation. 但很少有哪个问题能如此深刻地揭示美国的核心。我们很少面临这样的挑战，不是挑战我们的发展或富足，不是挑战我们的福利或安全，而是挑战我们所热爱的国家的价值观、宗旨和意义。
The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. 美国黑人的平等权利问题就是这样一个问题。
And should we defeat every enemy, and should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation. For with a country as with a person, “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” 如果我们击败了每一个敌人，如果我们使财富翻番并征服了星辰，但在这个问题上仍然不平等，那么我们作为一个民族和国家就失败了。因为对于一个国家就像对于一个人一样："人若赚得全世界，却赔上自己的灵魂，有什么益处呢？"
There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem. And we are met here tonight as Americans -- not as Democrats or Republicans. We are met here as Americans to solve that problem. 不存在黑人问题，不存在南方问题，不存在北方问题。只存在一个美国问题。今晚我们聚集在这里，作为美国人——不是作为民主党人或共和党人。我们作为美国人聚集在这里，解决这个问题。
This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: “All men are created equal,” “government by consent of the governed,” “give me liberty or give me death.” 这是世界历史上第一个以特定宗旨建立的国家。这个宗旨的伟大宣言至今仍在每个美国人心中回响，无论北方还是南方："人人生而平等"，"政府应征得被统治者同意"，"不自由，毋宁死"。
Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives. 这些不仅仅是聪明的词句，也不是空洞的理论。两百年来，美国人以这些名义战斗和牺牲，今晚他们在世界各地作为自由的守护者站立着，冒着生命危险。
Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in a man’s possessions; it cannot be found in his power, or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. 这些话是对每个公民的承诺，承诺他将分享人类的尊严。这种尊严不在于一个人的财产，不在于他的权力或地位。它真正建立在他作为人应与所有人享有平等机会的权利之上。
It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being. To apply any other test -- to deny a man his hopes because of his color, or race, or his religion, or the place of his birth is not only to do injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom. 它意味着他应享有自由，应选择自己的领袖，应教育自己的子女，应根据自己的能力和作为人的品质供养家庭。若用其他标准——因肤色、种族、宗教或出生地而剥夺一个人的希望——不仅是不公，也是对美国的否定，是对为美国自由献出生命的先烈的亵渎。
Our fathers believed that if this noble view of the rights of man was to flourish, it must be rooted in democracy. The most basic right of all was the right to choose your own leaders. The history of this country, in large measure, is the history of the expansion of that right to all of our people. Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument. 我们的先辈相信，如果这种高尚的人权观要蓬勃发展，就必须植根于民主。最基本的权利是选择自己领袖的权利。这个国家的历史，在很大程度上，就是将这一权利扩展到所有人民的历史。民权的许多问题非常复杂和困难。但在这件事上，没有也不应该有争论。
Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. 每个美国公民都必须拥有平等的投票权。
There is no reason which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right. 没有任何理由可以辩解剥夺这一权利。没有任何责任比我们确保这一权利的责任更沉重。
Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes. Every device of which human ingenuity is capable has been used to deny this right. 然而，残酷的事实是，在这个国家的许多地方，男人和女人仅仅因为是黑人就被剥夺投票权。人类智慧所能想到的每一种手段都被用来剥夺这一权利。
The Negro citizen may go to register only to be told that the day is wrong, or the hour is late, or the official in charge is absent. And if he persists, and if he manages to present himself to the registrar, he may be disqualified because he did not spell out his middle name or because he abbreviated a word on the application. And if he manages to fill out an application, he is given a test. The registrar is the sole judge of whether he passes this test. 黑人公民可能去登记，却被告知日期不对，或时间太晚，或负责官员不在。如果他坚持，并设法向登记员出示自己，他可能会因为没有拼写中间名或在申请表上缩写了一个词而被取消资格。如果他设法填写了申请表，他会被要求参加考试。登记员是他是否通过考试的唯一评判者。
He may be asked to recite the entire Constitution, or explain the most complex provisions of State law. And even a college degree cannot be used to prove that he can read and write. 他可能被要求背诵整部宪法，或解释州法律最复杂的条款。即使拥有大学学位也不能证明他会读写。
For the fact is that the only way to pass these barriers is to show a white skin. Experience has clearly shown that the existing process of law cannot overcome systematic and ingenious discrimination. No law that we now have on the books -- and I have helped to put three of them there -- can ensure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it. 事实是，通过这些障碍的唯一途径是拥有白皮肤。经验清楚地表明，现有的法律程序无法克服系统性的、巧妙的歧视。我们现有的任何法律——我曾帮助制定过三项——都无法在地方官员决心拒绝时确保投票权。
In such a case our duty must be clear to all of us. The Constitution says that no person shall be kept from voting because of his race or his color. We have all sworn an oath before God to support and to defend that Constitution. We must now act in obedience to that oath. 在这种情况下，我们的责任必须对所有人都清楚。宪法规定，任何人不得因种族或肤色被剥夺投票权。我们都向上帝宣誓支持和捍卫宪法。我们现在必须按照誓言行动。
Wednesday, I will send to Congress a law designed to eliminate illegal barriers to the right to vote. 星期三，我将向国会提交一项旨在消除投票权非法障碍的法律。
The broad principles of that bill will be in the hands of the Democratic and Republican leaders tomorrow. After they have reviewed it, it will come here formally as a bill. 该法案的广泛原则明天将交到民主党和共和党领导人手中。他们审查后，将正式作为法案提交这里。
I am grateful for this opportunity to come here tonight at the invitation of the leadership to reason with my friends, to give them my views, and to visit with my former colleagues. I’ve had prepared a more comprehensive analysis of the legislation which I had intended to transmit to the clerk tomorrow, but which I will submit to the clerks tonight. 我很感激有机会今晚应领导层邀请来到这里，与我的朋友们讲道理，表达我的观点，并与我的前同事们交流。我准备了一份更全面的立法分析，原本打算明天提交给书记员，但我今晚就提交给书记员。
But I want to really discuss with you now, briefly, the main proposals of this legislation. 不过，我现在想与大家简要讨论这项立法的主要建议。
This bill will strike down restrictions to voting in all elections -- Federal, State, and local -- which have been used to deny Negroes the right to vote. This bill will establish a simple, uniform standard which cannot be used, however ingenious the effort, to flout our Constitution. 该法案将废除在所有选举——联邦、州和地方选举——中被用来剥夺黑人投票权的限制。该法案将确立一个简单、统一的标准，无论多么巧妙地努力，都无法用来藐视我们的宪法。
It will provide for citizens to be registered by officials of the United States Government, if the State officials refuse to register them. It will eliminate tedious, unnecessary lawsuits which delay the right to vote. Finally, this legislation will ensure that properly registered individuals are not prohibited from voting. 如果州官员拒绝登记公民，该法案将规定由美国政府官员进行登记。它将消除拖延投票权的冗长、不必要的诉讼。最后，这项立法将确保适当登记的个人不会被禁止投票。
I will welcome the suggestions from all of the Members of Congress -- I have no doubt that I will get some -- on ways and means to strengthen this law and to make it effective. But experience has plainly shown that this is the only path to carry out the command of the Constitution. 我欢迎国会所有议员提出建议——我毫不怀疑我会得到一些——关于加强这项法律并使其有效的方法。但经验清楚地表明，这是执行宪法命令的唯一途径。
To those who seek to avoid action by their National Government in their own communities, who want to and who seek to maintain purely local control over elections, the answer is simple: open your polling places to all your people. 对于那些寻求避免国家政府在自己社区采取行动、希望并寻求对选举保持纯粹地方控制的人，答案很简单：向所有人民开放你们的投票站。
Allow men and women to register and vote whatever the color of their skin. 允许男女无论肤色如何都进行登记和投票。
Extend the rights of citizenship to every citizen of this land. 将公民权利扩展到这片土地上的每一位公民。
There is no constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong -- deadly wrong -- to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of States’ rights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights. I have not the slightest doubt what will be your answer. 这里不存在宪法问题。宪法的命令是明确的。不存在道德问题。在这个国家剥夺任何美国同胞的投票权是错误的——致命的错误。不存在州权或国家权的问题。只存在人权的斗争。我毫不怀疑你们的答案是什么。
But the last time a President sent a civil rights bill to the Congress, it contained a provision to protect voting rights in Federal elections. That civil rights bill was passed after eight long months of debate. And when that bill came to my desk from the Congress for my signature, the heart of the voting provision had been eliminated. 但上次总统向国会提交民权法案时，其中包含一项保护联邦选举投票权的条款。那项民权法案经过八个月的漫长辩论才获得通过。当那项法案从国会送到我的办公桌等待我签署时，投票条款的核心已被删除。
This time, on this issue, there must be no delay, or no hesitation, or no compromise with our purpose. 这一次，在这个问题上，必须没有拖延，没有犹豫，没有对我们目标的妥协。
We cannot, we must not, refuse to protect the right of every American to vote in every election that he may desire to participate in. And we ought not, and we cannot, and we must not wait another eight months before we get a bill. We have already waited a hundred years and more, and the time for waiting is gone. 我们不能，也绝不应该拒绝保护每个美国人在他希望参与的每一次选举中的投票权。我们不应该，也不能，也绝不应该再等八个月才能获得一项法案。我们已经等待了一百多年，等待的时间已经过去了。
So I ask you to join me in working long hours -- nights and weekends, if necessary -- to pass this bill. And I don’t make that request lightly. 因此，我请求你们与我一起长时间工作——如有必要，夜晚和周末——以通过这项法案。我不是轻易提出这个请求的。
For from the window where I sit with the problems of our country, I recognize that from outside this chamber is the outraged conscience of a nation, the grave concern of many nations, and the harsh judgment of history on our acts. 因为从我处理国家问题的窗口，我认识到这个会议厅外是一个国家义愤填膺的良心，是许多国家的深切关注，是历史对我们行为的严厉评判。
But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. 但即使我们通过了这项法案，战斗也不会结束。塞尔玛发生的事情是一场更大运动的一部分，这场运动触及美国的每一个地区和州。
It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause too. 这是美国黑人努力为自己争取美国生活全部福祉的努力。他们的事业也必须是我们的事业。
Because it’s not just Negroes, but really it’s all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. 因为不仅仅是黑人，实际上是我们所有人，都必须克服偏见和不公正的沉重遗产。
And we shall overcome. 我们终将胜利。
As a man whose roots go deeply into Southern soil, I know how agonizing racial feelings are. I know how difficult it is to reshape the attitudes and the structure of our society. But a century has passed, more than a hundred years since the Negro was freed. And he is not fully free tonight. 作为一个根深深扎在南方土壤中的人，我知道种族情感是多么痛苦。我知道重塑我们社会的态度和结构是多么困难。但一个世纪已经过去了，黑人获得自由已经一百多年了。然而今晚他还没有完全自由。
It was more than a hundred years ago that Abraham Lincoln, a great President of another party, signed the Emancipation Proclamation; but emancipation is a proclamation, and not a fact. A century has passed, more than a hundred years, since equality was promised. And yet the Negro is not equal. A century has passed since the day of promise. And the promise is un-kept. 一百多年前，另一个党的伟大总统亚伯拉罕·林肯签署了《解放宣言》；但解放只是一项宣言，而不是事实。一个世纪过去了，承诺平等已经一百多年了。然而黑人并不平等。一个世纪过去了，承诺的那一天已经过去了。承诺没有兑现。
The time of justice has now come. I tell you that I believe sincerely that no force can hold it back. It is right in the eyes of man and God that it should come. And when it does, I think that day will brighten the lives of every American. 正义的时刻现在已经到来。我告诉你们，我真诚地相信没有任何力量可以阻止它。在人类和上帝眼中，它的到来是正确的。当它到来时，我认为那一天将照亮每个美国人的生活。
For Negroes are not the only victims. How many white children have gone uneducated? How many white families have lived in stark poverty? How many white lives have been scarred by fear, because we’ve wasted our energy and our substance to maintain the barriers of hatred and terror? 因为黑人不是唯一的受害者。有多少白人儿童没有受过教育？有多少白人家庭生活在赤贫之中？有多少白人的生活因恐惧而伤痕累累，因为我们浪费了我们的精力和财富来维持仇恨和恐怖的障碍？
And so I say to all of you here, and to all in the nation tonight, that those who appeal to you to hold on to the past do so at the cost of denying you your future. 因此，我对在座的所有人，以及今晚全国的所有人说，那些呼吁你们坚持过去的人，是在以剥夺你们的未来为代价。
This great, rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all, all black and white, all North and South, sharecropper and city dweller. These are the enemies: poverty, ignorance, disease. They’re our enemies, not our fellow man, not our neighbor. And these enemies too -- poverty, disease, and ignorance: we shall overcome. 这个伟大、富饶、躁动不安的国家可以为所有人——黑人和白人，北方人和南方人，佃农和城市居民——提供机会、教育和希望。这些是我们的敌人：贫困、无知、疾病。它们是我们的敌人，不是我们的同胞，不是我们的邻居。这些敌人——贫困、疾病和无知——我们终将战胜。
Now let none of us in any section look with prideful righteousness on the troubles in another section, or the problems of our neighbors. There’s really no part of America where the promise of equality has been fully kept. In Buffalo as well as in Birmingham, in Philadelphia as well as Selma, Americans are struggling for the fruits of freedom. This is one nation. 现在，让我们中没有人带着骄傲的正义感看待另一个地区的麻烦或我们邻居的问题。美国没有任何地方完全兑现了平等的承诺。在布法罗和伯明翰，在费城和塞尔玛，美国人都在为自由的果实而奋斗。这是一个国家。
What happens in Selma or in Cincinnati is a matter of legitimate concern to every American. But let each of us look within our own hearts and our own communities, and let each of us put our shoulder to the wheel to root out injustice wherever it exists. 塞尔玛或辛辛那提发生的事情是每个美国人合理关心的问题。但让我们每个人审视自己的内心和自己的社区，让我们每个人都尽自己的一份力量，根除任何存在的不公正。
As we meet here in this peaceful, historic chamber tonight, men from the South, some of whom were at Iwo Jima, men from the North who have carried Old Glory to far corners of the world and brought it back without a stain on it, men from the East and from the West, are all fighting together without regard to religion, or color, or region, in Vietnam. Men from every region fought for us across the world twenty years ago. 今晚当我们在这个和平、历史悠久的会议厅聚会时，来自南方的人——其中一些人曾在硫磺岛战斗过，来自北方的人——他们将星条旗带到世界遥远的角落并毫无污点地带回，来自东方和西方的人，都在越南并肩作战，不分宗教、肤色或地区。二十年前，来自每个地区的人为我们在世界各地战斗。
And now in these common dangers and these common sacrifices, the South made its contribution of honor and gallantry no less than any other region in the Great Republic -- and in some instances, a great many of them, more. 现在，在这些共同的危险和共同的牺牲中，南方做出的荣誉和英勇贡献不亚于这个伟大共和国的任何其他地区——在某些情况下，比许多地区更多。
And I have not the slightest doubt that good men from everywhere in this country, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Golden Gate to the harbors along the Atlantic, will rally now together in this cause to vindicate the freedom of all Americans. 我毫不怀疑，这个国家各地的善良人们，从五大湖到墨西哥湾，从金门到大西洋沿岸的港口，现在将团结在这一事业中，维护所有美国人的自由。
For all of us owe this duty; and I believe that all of us will respond to it. Your President makes that request of every American. 因为我们所有人都肩负着这一责任；我相信我们所有人都会响应。你们的总统向每个美国人提出这个请求。
The real hero of this struggle is the American Negro. His actions and protests, his courage to risk safety and even to risk his life, have awakened the conscience of this nation. His demonstrations have been designed to call attention to injustice, designed to provoke change, designed to stir reform. He has called upon us to make good the promise of America. And who among us can say that we would have made the same progress were it not for his persistent bravery, and his faith in American democracy. 这场斗争的真正英雄是美国黑人。他的行动和抗议，他冒着安全甚至生命危险的勇气，唤醒了这个国家的良心。他的示威旨在引起人们对不公正的关注，旨在引发变革，旨在激发改革。他呼吁我们兑现美国的承诺。我们中有谁能说，如果不是他坚持不懈的勇敢和对美国民主的信念，我们会取得同样的进步。
For at the real heart of battle for equality is a deep seated belief in the democratic process. Equality depends not on the force of arms or tear gas but depends upon the force of moral right; not on recourse to violence but on respect for law and order. 因为平等斗争的真正核心是对民主进程的深刻信念。平等不取决于武力或催泪瓦斯，而取决于道德正义的力量；不取决于诉诸暴力，而取决于对法律和秩序的尊重。
And there have been many pressures upon your President and there will be others as the days come and go. But I pledge you tonight that we intend to fight this battle where it should be fought -- in the courts, and in the Congress, and in the hearts of men. 你们的总统面临过许多压力，随着日子的流逝还会有其他压力。但今晚我向你们保证，我们打算在应该战斗的地方进行这场战斗——在法庭上，在国会中，在人们的心中。
We must preserve the right of free speech and the right of free assembly. But the right of free speech does not carry with it, as has been said, the right to holler fire in a crowded theater. We must preserve the right of free assembly. But free assembly does not carry with it the right to block public thoroughfares to traffic. 我们必须维护言论自由和集会自由的权利。但言论自由并不像有人说的那样，包括在拥挤的剧院里喊"着火了"的权利。我们必须维护集会自由的权利。但集会自由并不包括阻塞公共交通要道的权利。
We do have a right to protest, and a right to march under conditions that do not infringe the constitutional rights of our neighbors. And I intend to protect all those rights as long as I am permitted to serve in this office. 我们确实有权抗议，有权在不侵犯我们邻居宪法权利的条件下游行。只要我被允许在这个职位上服务，我打算保护所有这些权利。
We will guard against violence, knowing it strikes from our hands the very weapons which we seek: progress, obedience to law, and belief in American values. 我们将防范暴力，因为我们知道暴力会夺走我们所寻求的武器：进步、遵守法律和对美国价值观的信念。
In Selma, as elsewhere, we seek and pray for peace. We seek order. We seek unity. But we will not accept the peace of stifled rights, or the order imposed by fear, or the unity that stifles protest. For peace cannot be purchased at the cost of liberty. 在塞尔玛，如同其他地方，我们寻求并祈祷和平。我们寻求秩序。我们寻求团结。但我们不会接受被压制的权利带来的和平，或恐惧强加的秩序，或压制抗议的团结。因为和平不能以自由为代价来换取。
In Selma tonight -- and we had a good day there -- as in every city, we are working for a just and peaceful settlement And we must all remember that after this speech I am making tonight, after the police and the FBI and the Marshals have all gone, and after you have promptly passed this bill, the people of Selma and the other cities of the Nation must still live and work together. And when the attention of the nation has gone elsewhere, they must try to heal the wounds and to build a new community. 今晚在塞尔玛——我们在那里度过了美好的一天——如同在每个城市，我们都在为公正和平的解决方案而努力。我们都必须记住，在我今晚发表这篇演讲之后，在警察、联邦调查局和法警都离开之后，在你们迅速通过这项法案之后，塞尔玛和全国其他城市的人民仍然必须一起生活和工作。当全国的注意力转移到其他地方时，他们必须努力治愈创伤，建设一个新的社区。
This cannot be easily done on a battleground of violence, as the history of the South itself shows. It is in recognition of this that men of both races have shown such an outstandingly impressive responsibility in recent days -- last Tuesday, again today. 正如南方本身的历史所表明的，这在暴力的战场上是不容易做到的。正是认识到这一点，最近几天——上周二，今天再次——两个种族的人表现出了如此出色和令人印象深刻的责任感。
The bill that I am presenting to you will be known as a civil rights bill. But, in a larger sense, most of the program I am recommending is a civil rights program. Its object is to open the city of hope to all people of all races. 我向你们提交的法案将被称为民权法案。但从更广泛的意义上说，我建议的大部分计划是一项民权计划。其目标是向所有种族的人开放希望之城。
Because all Americans just must have the right to vote. And we are going to give them that right. All Americans must have the privileges of citizenship -- regardless of race. And they are going to have those privileges of citizenship -- regardless of race. 因为所有美国人都必须拥有投票权。我们打算赋予他们这项权利。所有美国人都必须拥有公民特权——无论种族如何。他们将拥有这些公民特权——无论种族如何。
But I would like to caution you and remind you that to exercise these privileges takes much more than just legal right. It requires a trained mind and a healthy body. It requires a decent home, and the chance to find a job, and the opportunity to escape from the clutches of poverty. 但我想提醒你们，行使这些特权需要的不仅仅是法律权利。它需要训练有素的头脑和健康的身体。它需要体面的家园，找到工作的机会，以及摆脱贫困魔爪的机会。
Of course, people cannot contribute to the nation if they are never taught to read or write, if their bodies are stunted from hunger, if their sickness goes untended, if their life is spent in hopeless poverty just drawing a welfare check. So we want to open the gates to opportunity. But we’re also going to give all our people, black and white, the help that they need to walk through those gates. 当然，如果人们从未被教导过读写，如果他们的身体因饥饿而发育不良，如果他们的疾病得不到治疗，如果他们的生活在绝望的贫困中度过，只能领取福利支票，他们就无法为国家做出贡献。因此，我们希望打开机会之门。但我们也打算给予我们所有的人民，黑人和白人，他们走过这些门所需的帮助。
My first job after college was as a teacher in Cotulla, Texas, in a small Mexican-American school. Few of them could speak English, and I couldn’t speak much Spanish. My students were poor and they often came to class without breakfast, hungry. 我大学毕业后的第一份工作是在得克萨斯州科图拉的一所小型墨西哥裔美国人学校当老师。他们中很少有人会说英语，我也不会说太多西班牙语。我的学生很穷，他们经常饿着肚子来上课，没有吃早餐。
And they knew, even in their youth, the pain of prejudice. They never seemed to know why people disliked them. But they knew it was so, because I saw it in their eyes. I often walked home late in the afternoon, after the classes were finished, wishing there was more that I could do. But all I knew was to teach them the little that I knew, hoping that it might help them against the hardships that lay ahead. 他们甚至在年轻时就知道偏见的痛苦。他们似乎从来不知道为什么人们不喜欢他们。但他们知道事实如此，因为我在他们眼中看到了这一点。我经常在下午课后很晚才走回家，希望我能做更多的事情。但我所知道的只是教他们我所知道的一点点，希望这可能有助于他们应对未来的困难。
And somehow you never forget what poverty and hatred can do when you see its scars on the hopeful face of a young child. I never thought then, in 1928, that I would be standing here in 1965. It never even occurred to me in my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students and to help people like them all over this country. 不知何故，当你看到贫困和仇恨在一个充满希望的孩子脸上留下的伤痕时，你永远不会忘记它们能做什么。1928年时，我从未想过1965年会站在这里。即使在我最美好的梦想中，我也从未想到我可能有机会帮助那些学生的子孙，帮助全国各地像他们一样的人。
But now I do have that chance -- and I’ll let you in on a secret -- I mean to use it. 但现在我确实有了这个机会——让我告诉你们一个秘密——我打算利用它。
And I hope that you will use it with me. 我希望你们也能和我一起利用它。
This is the richest and the most powerful country which ever occupied this globe. The might of past empires is little compared to ours. But I do not want to be the President who built empires, or sought grandeur, or extended dominion. 这是有史以来占据这个星球的最富有、最强大的国家。过去帝国的力量与我们相比微不足道。但我不想成为建立帝国、追求辉煌或扩展领土的总统。
I want to be the President who educated young children to the wonders of their world. 我想成为教育幼儿认识世界奇迹的总统。
I want to be the President who helped to feed the hungry and to prepare them to be tax-payers instead of tax-eaters. 我想成为帮助养活饥饿者并帮助他们成为纳税人而不是吃税者的总统。
I want to be the President who helped the poor to find their own way and who protected the right of every citizen to vote in every election. 我想成为帮助穷人找到自己道路并保护每个公民在每次选举中投票权的总统。
I want to be the President who helped to end hatred among his fellow men, and who promoted love among the people of all races and all regions and all parties. 我想成为帮助结束同胞之间仇恨并促进所有种族、所有地区和所有政党人民之间爱的总统。
I want to be the President who helped to end war among the brothers of this earth. 我想成为帮助结束地球上兄弟之间战争的总统。
And so, at the request of your beloved Speaker, and the Senator from Montana, the majority leader, the Senator from Illinois, the minority leader, Mr. McCulloch, and other Members of both parties, I came here tonight -- not as President Roosevelt came down one time, in person, to veto a bonus bill, not as President Truman came down one time to urge the passage of a railroad bill. 因此，应你们敬爱的议长、蒙大拿州参议员——多数党领袖、伊利诺伊州参议员——少数党领袖麦卡洛克先生以及两党其他议员的请求，我今晚来到这里——不是像罗斯福总统有一次亲自下来否决一项奖金法案，不是像杜鲁门总统有一次下来敦促通过一项铁路法案。
But I came down here to ask you to share this task with me, and to share it with the people that we both work for. I want this to be the Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, which did all these things for all these people. 而是我来到这里请求你们与我分担这项任务，并与我们共同服务的人民分担。我希望这成为国会——共和党人和民主党人——为所有这些人做所有这些事情的国会。
Beyond this great chamber, out yonder in fifty States, are the people that we serve. Who can tell what deep and unspoken hopes are in their hearts tonight as they sit there and listen. We all can guess, from our own lives, how difficult they often find their own pursuit of happiness, how many problems each little family has. They look most of all to themselves for their futures. But I think that they also look to each of us. 在这个伟大的会议厅之外，在五十个州的远方，是我们所服务的人民。谁能说出今晚当他们坐在那里倾听时，内心深处有哪些未说出口的希望。我们都可以从自己的生活中猜测，他们常常发现自己追求幸福是多么困难，每个小家庭有多少问题。他们最看重自己的未来。但我认为他们也指望我们每个人。
Above the pyramid on the great seal of the United States it says in Latin: “God has favored our undertaking.” God will not favor everything that we do. It is rather our duty to divine His will. 在美国国徽的金字塔上方，用拉丁语写着："上帝保佑我们的事业。"上帝不会保佑我们所做的一切。我们的责任是领悟他的旨意。
But I cannot help believing that He truly understands and that He really favors the undertaking that we begin here tonight. 但我不禁相信，他真正理解，并且确实支持我们今晚开始的事业。