Senator Hatfield, Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. President, Vice President Bush, Vice President Mondale, Senator Baker, Speaker O'Neill, Reverend Moomaw, and my fellow citizens: 哈特菲尔德参议员，首席大法官先生，总统先生，布什副总统，蒙代尔副总统，贝克参议员，奥尼尔议长，穆莫牧师，以及我的同胞们：
To a few of us here today this is a solemn and most momentous occasion, and yet in the history of our nation it is a commonplace occurrence. The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place, as it has for almost two centuries, and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every 4-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle. 对我们今天在场的一些人来说，这是一个庄严而重要的时刻，但在我们国家的历史上，这是一个司空见惯的事件。宪法所要求的权力有序移交，像近两个世纪以来一样例行发生，我们很少有人停下来思考我们究竟有多独特。在世界许多人眼中，这个我们视为正常的四年一次的仪式，简直就是一个奇迹。
Mr. President, I want our fellow citizens to know how much you did to carry on this tradition. By your gracious cooperation in the transition process, you have shown a watching world that we are a united people pledged to maintaining a political system which guarantees individual liberty to a greater degree than any other, and I thank you and your people for all your help in maintaining the continuity which is the bulwark of our Republic. 总统先生，我希望我们的同胞们知道你为延续这一传统所做的一切。通过你在过渡过程中的慷慨合作，你向注视着我们的世界表明，我们是一个团结的民族，致力于维护一个比任何其他制度都更大程度保障个人自由的政治体制，我感谢你和你的团队为维护作为我们共和国堡垒的连续性所提供的一切帮助。
The business of our nation goes forward. These United States are confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions. We suffer from the longest and one of the worst sustained inflations in our national history. It distorts our economic decisions, penalizes thrift, and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly alike. It threatens to shatter the lives of millions of our people. 我们国家的事业继续前进。美利坚合众国正面临着巨大的经济困境。我们正遭受着我国历史上持续时间最长、最严重的通货膨胀之一。它扭曲了我们的经济决策，惩罚了节俭，同样压垮了挣扎的年轻人和靠固定收入生活的老年人。它威胁着要粉碎我们数百万人的生活。
Idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, human misery, and personal indignity. Those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor by a tax system which penalizes successful achievement and keeps us from maintaining full productivity. 闲置的工业将工人抛入失业、人类苦难和个人屈辱之中。那些有工作的人，由于税收制度惩罚成功的成就，无法获得公平的劳动回报，这使我们无法保持充分的生产力。
But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For decades we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals. 尽管我们的税收负担很重，但它并没有跟上公共支出的步伐。几十年来，我们堆积了一个又一个赤字，为了眼前的暂时便利而抵押了我们的未来和我们孩子的未来。继续这一长期趋势将保证巨大的社会、文化、政治和经济动荡。
You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we're not bound by that same limitation? We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. And let there be no misunderstanding: We are going to begin to act, beginning today. 你我作为个人，可以通过借贷入不敷出，但只能在有限的时间内。那么，为什么我们会认为，作为一个国家集体，我们不受同样限制的约束呢？我们必须今天行动，以保全明天。不要有任何误解：我们将开始行动，从今天开始。
The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we as Americans have the capacity now, as we've had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom. 我们所遭受的经济弊病是几十年来积累起来的。它们不会在几天、几周或几个月内消失，但它们终将消失。它们终将消失，因为我们美国人现在有能力，就像过去一样，做任何需要做的事情来维护这个最后的、最伟大的自由堡垒。
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price. 在当前危机中，政府不是我们问题的解决方案；政府本身就是问题。我们不时被诱惑去相信，社会已经变得太复杂，无法通过自治来管理，相信精英集团的政府优于民有、民治、民享的政府。那么，如果我们中没有人有能力管理自己，那么我们中谁有能力管理别人呢？我们所有人，无论在政府内外，都必须承担责任。我们寻求的解决方案必须公平，不应让任何一个群体承担更高的代价。
We hear much of special interest groups. Well, our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we're sick—professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truck drivers. They are, in short, "We the people," this breed called Americans. 我们听到很多关于特殊利益集团的说法。那么，我们必须关注一个被长期忽视的特殊利益集团。它不分地域界限，不分民族和种族，跨越政党界限。它由种植我们粮食的人、巡逻我们街道的人、在矿山和工厂工作的人、教育我们孩子的人、操持我们家务的人以及在我们生病时医治我们的人组成——专业人士、实业家、店主、职员、出租车司机和卡车司机。简而言之，他们就是"我们人民"，这个被称为美国人的群体。
Well, this administration's objective will be a healthy, vigorous, growing economy that provides equal opportunities for all Americans, with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination. Putting America back to work means putting all Americans back to work. Ending inflation means freeing all Americans from the terror of runaway living costs. All must share in the productive work of this "new beginning," and all must share in the bounty of a revived economy. With the idealism and fair play which are the core of our system and our strength, we can have a strong and prosperous America, at peace with itself and the world. 那么，本届政府的目标将是建立一个健康、充满活力、不断增长的经济，为所有美国人提供平等的机会，没有源于偏见或歧视的障碍。让美国重新工作意味着让所有美国人重新工作。结束通货膨胀意味着让所有美国人摆脱生活成本失控的恐惧。所有人都必须参与这个"新开端"的生产性工作，所有人都必须分享复兴经济的成果。凭借作为我们制度核心和力量的理想主义和公平竞争精神，我们可以拥有一个强大而繁荣的美国，一个与自身和世界和平相处的美国。
So, as we begin, let us take inventory. We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed. 所以，在我们开始之际，让我们盘点一下。我们是一个有政府的国家——而不是相反。这使我们在世界各国中独一无二。我们的政府除了人民授予的权力外，没有任何权力。现在是时候检查并扭转政府的增长了，政府的增长已经显示出超出被统治者同意的迹象。
It is my intention to curb the size and influence of the Federal establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the Federal Government and those reserved to the States or to the people. All of us need to be reminded that the Federal Government did not create the States; the States created the Federal Government. 我的意图是遏制联邦机构的规模和影响力，并要求承认授予联邦政府的权力与保留给各州或人民的权力之间的区别。我们所有人都需要被提醒，联邦政府没有创造各州；是各州创造了联邦政府。
Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it's not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work--work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it. 现在，为了避免误解，我的意图不是废除政府。而是让它发挥作用——与我们合作，而不是凌驾于我们之上；站在我们身边，而不是骑在我们背上。政府能够而且必须提供机会，而不是扼杀机会；促进生产力，而不是压制生产力。
If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on Earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on Earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay that price. 如果我们探寻为什么这么多年来我们取得了如此大的成就，比世界上任何其他民族都更加繁荣，答案是因为在这片土地上，我们以前所未有的程度释放了人类的能量和个人天才。自由和个人尊严在这里比在世界任何其他地方都更加可得和有保障。这种自由的代价有时很高，但我们从来不愿意付出这个代价。
It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope. 并非巧合的是，我们目前的困境与政府不必要和过度增长导致的干预和入侵我们生活的程度成正比。现在是时候让我们认识到，我们是一个伟大的国家，不应将自己限制在渺小的梦想中。我们并非像某些人希望我们相信的那样，注定要不可避免地衰落。我不相信无论我们做什么，命运都会降临到我们身上。我相信，如果我们什么都不做，命运就会降临到我们身上。因此，用我们所拥有的全部创造力，让我们开始一个国家复兴的时代。让我们重新坚定我们的决心、勇气和力量。让我们重新树立我们的信仰和希望。
We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are not heroes, they just don't know where to look. You can see heroes every day going in and out of factory gates. Others, a handful in number, produce enough food to feed all of us and then the world beyond. You meet heroes across a counter, and they're on both sides of that counter. There are entrepreneurs with faith in themselves and faith in an idea who create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity. They're individuals and families whose taxes support the government and whose voluntary gifts support church, charity, culture, art, and education. Their patriotism is quiet, but deep. Their values sustain our national life. 我们有权利怀有英雄般的梦想。那些说我们身处一个没有英雄的时代的人，只是不知道去哪里寻找。你每天都能看到英雄们进出工厂大门。另一些人，人数寥寥，生产出足够的粮食养活我们所有人，然后养活世界其他地方的人。你在柜台对面遇到英雄，他们在柜台的两边。有一些企业家对自己和自己的想法有信心，他们创造新的就业机会、新的财富和机会。他们是用税收支持政府、用自愿捐赠支持教会、慈善事业、文化、艺术和教育的个人和家庭。他们的爱国主义是安静的，但却是深厚的。他们的价值观支撑着我们的国家生活。
Now, I have used the words "they" and "their" in speaking of these heroes. I could say "you" and "your," because I'm addressing the heroes of whom I speak—you, the citizens of this blessed land. Your dreams, your hopes, your goals are going to be the dreams, the hopes, and the goals of this administration, so help me God. 现在，我在谈到这些英雄时使用了"他们"和"他们的"。我可以说"你们"和"你们的"，因为我正在对我所说的英雄们讲话——你们，这片受祝福土地的公民们。你们的梦想、希望和目标将成为本届政府的梦想、希望和目标，上帝保佑。
We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup. How can we love our country and not love our countrymen; and loving them, reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when they're sick, and provide opportunity to make them self-sufficient so they will be equal in fact and not just in theory? 我们将体现你们性格中如此重要的同情心。我们怎么能热爱我们的国家而不热爱我们的同胞呢？既然热爱他们，当他们跌倒时伸出援手，当他们生病时医治他们，并提供机会使他们自给自足，使他们在事实上而不仅仅是理论上平等呢？
Can we solve the problems confronting us? Well, the answer is an unequivocal and emphatic "yes." To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I've just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy. 我们能解决我们面临的问题吗？答案是明确而有力的"是的"。借用温斯顿·丘吉尔的话，我宣誓就职并非为了主持世界最强经济体的解体。
In the days ahead I will propose removing the roadblocks that have slowed our economy and reduced productivity. Steps will be taken aimed at restoring the balance between the various levels of government. Progress may be slow, measured in inches and feet, not miles, but we will progress. It is time to reawaken this industrial giant, to get government back within its means, and to lighten our punitive tax burden. And these will be our first priorities, and on these principles there will be no compromise. 在未来的日子里，我将提议消除阻碍我们经济发展和降低生产力的障碍。将采取步骤恢复各级政府之间的平衡。进展可能缓慢，以英寸和英尺衡量，而不是英里，但我们将取得进展。现在是唤醒这个工业巨人、让政府量入为出、减轻我们惩罚性税收负担的时候了。这些将是我们的首要任务，在这些原则上不会有妥协。
On the eve of our struggle for independence a man who might have been one of the greatest among the Founding Fathers, Dr. Joseph Warren, president of the Massachusetts Congress, said to his fellow Americans, "Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of . . . . On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important questions upon which rests the happiness and the liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves." 在我们争取独立的前夕，一位本可能成为开国元勋中最伟大人物之一的人——马萨诸塞州议会议长约瑟夫·沃伦博士对他的美国同胞说："我们的国家正处于危险之中，但并非无可救药……美国的命运取决于你们。你们将决定关系到尚未出生的数百万人幸福和自由的重要问题。行动要无愧于你们自己。"
Well, I believe we, the Americans of today, are ready to act worthy of ourselves, ready to do what must be done to ensure happiness and liberty for ourselves, our children, and our children's children. And as we renew ourselves here in our own land, we will be seen as having greater strength throughout the world. We will again be the exemplar of freedom and a beacon of hope for those who do not now have freedom. 我相信，我们今天的美国人已经准备好无愧于自己，准备好做必须做的事情，以确保我们自己、我们的孩子和我们的孙辈的幸福和自由。当我们在自己的土地上重新振兴自己时，世界将看到我们拥有更大的力量。我们将再次成为自由的典范，成为那些现在没有自由的人的希望灯塔。
To those neighbors and allies who share our freedom, we will strengthen our historic ties and assure them of our support and firm commitment. We will match loyalty with loyalty. We will strive for mutually beneficial relations. We will not use our friendship to impose on their sovereignty, for our own sovereignty is not for sale. 对于那些与我们共享自由的邻国和盟友，我们将加强我们的历史联系，并向他们保证我们的支持和坚定承诺。我们将以忠诚回报忠诚。我们将努力建立互利关系。我们不会利用友谊来干涉他们的主权，因为我们自己的主权是不能出卖的。
As for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries, they will be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of the American people. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it; we will not surrender for it, now or ever. 至于自由的敌人，那些潜在的对手，他们将被提醒，和平是美国人民的最高愿望。我们将为和平谈判，为和平牺牲；我们绝不会为和平投降，现在不会，永远不会。
Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act. We will maintain sufficient strength to prevail if need be, knowing that if we do so we have the best chance of never having to use that strength. 我们的克制绝不应被误解。我们不愿冲突不应被误判为意志薄弱。当需要采取行动维护我们的国家安全时，我们将采取行动。我们将保持足够的力量，在需要时取得胜利，因为我们知道，如果我们这样做，我们就最有可能永远不必使用这种力量。
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors. 最重要的是，我们必须认识到，世界上任何武器库中的任何武器都不如自由男女的意志和道德勇气那样强大。这是当今世界我们的对手所没有的武器。这是我们美国人所拥有的武器。让那些实行恐怖主义和掠夺邻人的人明白这一点。
I'm told that tens of thousands of prayer meetings are being held on this day, and for that I'm deeply grateful. We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free. It would be fitting and good, I think, if on each Inaugural Day in future years it should be declared a day of prayer. 我被告知，今天正在举行成千上万的祈祷集会，对此我深表感谢。我们是一个信仰上帝的国家，我相信上帝希望我们自由。我认为，如果在未来几年的每个就职日都宣布为祈祷日，那将是恰当和美好的。
This is the first time in our history that this ceremony has been held, as you've been told, on this West Front of the Capitol. Standing here, one faces a magnificent vista, opening up on this city's special beauty and history. At the end of this open mall are those shrines to the giants on whose shoulders we stand. 正如你们被告知的，这是我们历史上第一次在国会大厦西廊举行这个仪式。站在这里，人们面对壮丽的景色，展现这座城市独特的美丽和历史。在这片开放广场的尽头，是那些我们所站在其肩上的巨人的圣地。
Directly in front of me, the monument to a monumental man, George Washington, father of our country. A man of humility who came to greatness reluctantly. He led America out of revolutionary victory into infant nationhood. Off to one side, the stately memorial to Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence flames with his eloquence. And then, beyond the Reflecting Pool, the dignified columns of the Lincoln Memorial. Whoever would understand in his heart the meaning of America will find it in the life of Abraham Lincoln. 正前方是一位伟大人物的纪念碑——乔治·华盛顿，我们国家的之父。一位谦逊的人，不情愿地走向伟大。他带领美国从革命胜利走向新生的国家。在一侧，是庄严的托马斯·杰斐逊纪念堂。《独立宣言》因他的雄辩而闪耀。然后，在倒影池的另一边，是林肯纪念堂庄严的柱廊。无论谁想在心中理解美国的意义，都会在亚伯拉罕·林肯的一生中找到答案。
Beyond those monuments to heroism is the Potomac River, and on the far shore the sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery, with its row upon row of simple white markers bearing crosses or Stars of David. They add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom. 在这些英雄纪念碑之外是波托马克河，对岸是阿灵顿国家公墓的倾斜山丘，一排排简单的白色标记上刻着十字架或大卫之星。它们只占为我们的自由所付出代价的一小部分。
Each one of those markers is a monument to the kind of hero I spoke of earlier. Their lives ended in places called Belleau Wood, The Argonne, Omaha Beach, Salerno, and halfway around the world on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies and jungles of a place called Vietnam. 每一个标记都是我早些时候谈到的那种英雄的纪念碑。他们的生命在一些地方结束：贝洛森林、阿贡、奥马哈海滩、萨勒诺，以及半个地球之外的瓜达尔卡纳尔岛、塔拉瓦、猪排山、长津水库，以及一个叫越南的地方的一百个稻田和丛林。
Under one such marker lies a young man, Martin Treptow, who left his job in a small town barbershop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire. 在这样一个标记下躺着一个年轻人，马丁·特雷普托，他于1917年离开小镇理发店的工作，随著名的彩虹师前往法国。在西线，他在猛烈的炮火下试图在营队之间传递消息时被杀害。
We're told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading, "My Pledge," he had written these words: "America must win this war. Therefore I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone." 据说在他身上发现了一本日记。在扉页"我的誓言"标题下，他写下了这些话："美国必须赢得这场战争。因此，我将工作，我将节约，我将牺牲，我将忍耐，我将愉快地战斗并尽我最大努力，仿佛整个斗争的结果完全取决于我一个人。"
The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that Martin Treptow and so many thousands of others were called upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds, to believe that together with God's help we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. 我们今天面临的危机并不要求我们做出马丁·特雷普托和其他成千上万的人被要求做出的那种牺牲。然而，它确实需要我们尽最大努力，愿意相信自己，相信我们有能力成就伟大的事业，相信在上帝的帮助下，我们能够并且将解决我们现在面临的问题。
And after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans.God bless you, and thank you. 毕竟，我们为什么不应该相信呢？我们是美国人。上帝保佑你们，谢谢你们。