Senator Mathias, Chief Justice Burger, Vice President Bush, Speaker O'Neill, Senator Dole, reverend clergy, and members of my family and friends and my fellow citizens: 马蒂亚斯参议员，伯格首席大法官，布什副总统，奥尼尔议长，多尔参议员，尊敬的神职人员，我的家人、朋友们和同胞们：
This day has been made brighter with the presence here of one who, for a time, has been absent. Senator John Stennis, God bless you and welcome back. 今天，一位暂时缺席的人的到来使这一天更加明亮。约翰·斯坦尼斯参议员，上帝保佑你，欢迎回来。
There is, however, one who is not with us today. Representative Gillis Long of Louisiana left us last night. And I wonder if we could all join in a moment of silent prayer. 然而，有一位今天不在这里。路易斯安那州的吉利斯·朗众议员昨晚离开了我们。我想我们能否一起默哀片刻。
[The President resumed speaking after a moment of silence. ] [总统在默哀片刻后继续讲话。]
There are no words adequate to express my thanks for the great honor that you've bestowed on me. I'll do my utmost to be deserving of your trust. 我无法用言语表达对你们赐予我的巨大荣誉的感谢。我将尽最大努力不辜负你们的信任。
This is, as Senator Mathias told us, the 50th time that we, the people, have celebrated this historic occasion. When the first President, George Washington, placed his hand upon the Bible, he stood less than a single day's journey by horseback from raw, untamed wilderness. There were 4 million Americans in a union of 13 States. Today, we are 60 times as many in a union of 50 States. We've lighted the world with our inventions, gone to the aid of mankind wherever in the world there was a cry for help, journeyed to the Moon and safely returned. So much has changed, and yet we stand together as we did two centuries ago. 正如马蒂亚斯参议员所说，这是我们人民第五十次庆祝这一历史性时刻。当第一任总统乔治·华盛顿把手放在圣经上时，他离原始、未驯服的荒野不到一天的马程。当时有400万美国人，组成13个州的联邦。今天，我们的人数是当时的60倍，组成50个州的联邦。我们用发明照亮了世界，在世界上任何有求助呼声的地方帮助人类，登上月球并安全返回。变化如此之多，但我们仍然像两个世纪前一样站在一起。
When I took this oath 4 years ago, I did so in a time of economic stress. Voices were raised saying that we had to look to our past for the greatness and glory. But we, the present-day Americans, are not given to looking backward. In this blessed land, there is always a better tomorrow. 四年前我宣誓就职时，正值经济压力时期。有人说我们必须回顾过去才能找到伟大和荣耀。但我们当代美国人不习惯于向后看。在这片受祝福的土地上，总有一个更美好的明天。
Four years ago, I spoke to you of a New Beginning, and we have accomplished that. But in another sense, our New Beginning is a continuation of that beginning created two centuries ago when, for the first time in history, government, the people said, was not our master, it is our servant; its only power that which we the people allow it to have. 四年前，我向你们谈到了新的开始，我们已经实现了这一点。但在另一种意义上，我们的新开始是两个世纪前那个开始的延续，当时人民第一次在历史上说，政府不是我们的主人，而是我们的仆人；它唯一的权力是我们人民允许它拥有的权力。
That system has never failed us, but for a time we failed the system. We asked things of government that government was not equipped to give. We yielded authority to the National Government that properly belonged to States or to local governments or to the people themselves. We allowed taxes and inflation to rob us of our earnings and savings and watched the great industrial machine that had made us the most productive people on Earth slow down and the number of unemployed increase. 这个制度从未让我们失望，但有一段时间我们让制度失望了。我们向政府要求了政府无力给予的东西。我们将本应属于各州、地方政府或人民自己的权力交给了联邦政府。我们允许税收和通货膨胀剥夺我们的收入和储蓄，看着曾经使我们成为世界上最富有生产力的民族的伟大工业机器减速，失业人数增加。
By 1980 we knew it was time to renew our faith, to strive with all our strength toward the ultimate in individual freedom, consistent with an orderly society. 到1980年，我们知道是时候重新树立我们的信念，全力以赴追求与有序社会相一致的个人自由的终极目标了。
We believed then and now: There are no limits to growth and human progress when men and women are free to follow their dreams. And we were right to believe that. Tax rates have been reduced, inflation cut dramatically, and more people are employed than ever before in our history. 我们当时相信，现在仍然相信：当人们自由追寻梦想时，增长和人类进步没有极限。我们的信念是正确的。税率已经降低，通货膨胀大幅削减，就业人数比我国历史上任何时候都多。
We are creating a nation once again vibrant, robust, and alive. But there are many mountains yet to climb. We will not rest until every American enjoys the fullness of freedom, dignity, and opportunity as our birthright. It is our birthright as citizens of this great Republic. 我们正在创造一个再次充满活力、强健和生机勃勃的国家。但仍有许多山峰需要攀登。我们将不懈努力，直到每个美国人都享有作为我们与生俱来权利的充分自由、尊严和机会。这是我们作为这个伟大共和国公民的与生俱来的权利。
And if we meet this challenge, these will be years when Americans have restored their confidence and tradition of progress; when our values of faith, family, work, and neighborhood were restated for a modern age; when our economy was finally freed from government's grip; when we made sincere efforts at meaningful arms reductions and by rebuilding our defenses, our economy, and developing new technologies, helped preserve peace in a troubled world; when America courageously supported the struggle for individual liberty, self-government, and free enterprise throughout the world and turned the tide of history away from totalitarian darkness and into the warm sunlight of human freedom. 如果我们迎接这一挑战，这些年将是美国人恢复信心和进步传统的年代；是我们的信仰、家庭、工作和社区价值观在现代重新阐述的年代；是我们的经济最终摆脱政府控制的年代；是我们通过重建国防、发展经济和开发新技术，为在动荡世界中维护和平做出真诚努力的年代；是美国勇敢支持全球范围内争取个人自由、自治和自由企业的斗争，并将历史潮流从极权主义黑暗转向人类自由温暖阳光的年代。
My fellow citizens, our nation is poised for greatness. We must do what we know is right, and do it with all our might. Let history say of us: "These were golden years-when the American Revolution was reborn, when freedom gained new life, and America reached for her best. 同胞们，我们的国家正准备迎接伟大。我们必须做我们知道正确的事情，并全力以赴。让历史这样评价我们："这是黄金年代——美国革命重生的年代，自由获得新生的年代，美国追求卓越的年代。"
Our two-party system has solved us-served us, I should say, well over the years, but never better than in those times of great challenge when we came together not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans united in a common cause. 我们的两党制度多年来一直为我们服务，我应该说，在巨大挑战的时刻，我们作为美国人而非民主党人或共和党人团结在一起为共同事业奋斗时，两党制度从未像现在这样出色。
Two of our Founding Fathers, a Boston lawyer named Adams and a Virginia planter named Jefferson, members of that remarkable group who met in Independence Hall and dared to think they could start the world over again, left us an important lesson. They had become, in the years then in government, bitter political rivals in the Presidential election of 1800. Then, years later, when both were retired and age had softened their anger, they began to speak to each other again through letters. A bond was reestablished between those two who had helped create this government of ours. 我们的两位开国元勋——一位名叫亚当斯的波士顿律师和一位名叫杰斐逊的弗吉尼亚种植园主——他们是在独立大厅聚会并敢于认为自己可以重新开始世界的杰出群体的成员，给我们留下了重要的教训。在政府任职的那些年里，他们在1800年总统选举中成为激烈的政治对手。多年后，当两人都退休了，岁月软化了他们的愤怒，他们开始通过书信再次交谈。在这两位帮助创建了我们政府的人之间重新建立了联系。
In 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, they both died. They died on the same day, within a few hours of each other, and that day was the Fourth of July. 1826年，即《独立宣言》发表50周年，他们两人都去世了。他们在同一天去世，相隔仅几个小时，那一天是7月4日。
In one of those letters exchanged in the sunset of their lives, Jefferson wrote: "It carries me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right of self-government. Laboring always at the same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us, and yet passing harmless... we rode through the storm with heart and hand." 在他们晚年夕阳般的书信往来中，杰斐逊写道："这让我回到了那个困难和危险重重的时代，我们是同一事业的同胞劳动者，为人类最宝贵的东西——自治权而奋斗。我们始终同舟共济，前方总有巨浪威胁要淹没我们，但却安然无恙……我们凭着决心和双手渡过了风暴。"
Well, with heart and hand let us stand as one today—one people under God, determined that our future shall be worthy of our past. As we do, we must not repeat the well-intentioned errors of our past. We must never again abuse the trust of working men and women by sending their earnings on a futile chase after the spiraling demands of a bloated Federal Establishment. You elected us in 1980 to end this prescription for disaster, and I don't believe you reelected us in 1984 to reverse course. 今天，让我们凭着决心和双手团结在一起——在上帝之下的一个民族，决心让我们的未来无愧于我们的过去。在这样做时，我们绝不能重复过去出于善意的错误。我们绝不能再滥用劳动人民的信任，将他们的收入用于徒劳地追逐臃肿的联邦机构不断膨胀的需求。你们在1980年选举我们来结束这场灾难的处方，我不相信你们在1984年再次选举我们是为了改弦易辙。
At the heart of our efforts is one idea vindicated by 25 straight months of economic growth: Freedom and incentives unleash the drive and entrepreneurial genius that are the core of human progress. We have begun to increase the rewards for work, savings, and investment; reduce the increase in the cost and size of government and its interference in people's lives. 我们努力的核心是一个被连续25个月经济增长证明的理念：自由和激励释放了作为人类进步核心的动力和创业天才。我们已经开始增加对工作、储蓄和投资的回报；减少政府成本和规模的增长及其对人们生活的干预。
We must simplify our tax system, make it more fair and bring the rates down for all who work and earn. We must think anew and move with a new boldness, so every American who seeks work can find work, so the least among us shall have an equal chance to achieve the greatest things—to be heroes who heal our sick, feed the hungry, protect peace among nations, and leave this world a better place. 我们必须简化税收制度，使其更加公平，并降低所有工作和收入者的税率。我们必须重新思考并以新的勇气前进，使每个寻求工作的美国人都能找到工作，使我们中最弱势的人有平等的机会实现最伟大的成就——成为治愈病人、养活饥饿者、维护国家间和平、让世界变得更美好的英雄。
The time has come for a new American emancipation—a great national drive to tear down economic barriers and liberate the spirit of enterprise in the most distressed areas of our country. My friends, together we can do this, and do it we must, so help me God. 新的美国解放时刻已经到来——一场伟大的全国性运动，旨在拆除经济壁垒，在我国最贫困的地区释放企业精神。朋友们，我们共同能够做到这一点，我们必须做到，上帝保佑。
From new freedom will spring new opportunities for growth, a more productive, fulfilled, and united people, and a stronger America—an America that will lead the technological revolution and also open its mind and heart and soul to the treasures of literature, music, and poetry, and the values of faith, courage, and love. 从新的自由中将涌现新的增长机会，一个更富有生产力、更充实、更团结的民族，以及一个更强大的美国——一个将引领技术革命，同时敞开心扉和灵魂拥抱文学、音乐和诗歌的宝藏，以及信仰、勇气和爱的价值观的美国。
A dynamic economy, with more citizens working and paying taxes, will be our strongest tool to bring down budget deficits. But an almost unbroken 50 years of deficit spending has finally brought us to a time of reckoning. We've come to a turning point, a moment for hard decisions. I have asked the Cabinet and my staff a question and now I put the same question to all of you. If not us, who? And if not now, when? It must be done by all of us going forward with a program aimed at reaching a balanced budget. We can then begin reducing the national debt. 一个充满活力的经济，有更多公民工作和纳税，将是我们降低预算赤字的最有力工具。但近50年几乎不间断的赤字支出最终让我们到了清算的时刻。我们来到了一个转折点，一个做出艰难决定的时刻。我曾向内阁和我的工作人员提出一个问题，现在我向你们所有人提出同样的问题：如果不是我们，那是谁？如果不是现在，那是什么时候？我们所有人都必须共同推进一项旨在实现预算平衡的计划。然后我们才能开始减少国家债务。
I will shortly submit a budget to the Congress aimed at freezing government program spending for the next year. Beyond this, we must take further steps to permanently control government's power to tax and spend. We must act now to protect future generations from government's desire to spend its citizens' money and tax them into servitude when the bills come due. Let us make it unconstitutional for the Federal Government to spend more than the Federal Government takes in. 我不久将向国会提交一项预算，旨在冻结明年的政府计划支出。除此之外，我们必须采取进一步措施，永久控制政府的征税和支出权力。我们必须立即行动，保护后代免受政府在账单到期时花费公民资金并将他们征税到奴役状态的欲望。让我们使联邦政府支出超过收入成为违宪行为。
We have already started returning to the people and to State and local governments responsibilities better handled by them. Now, there is a place for the Federal Government in matters of social compassion. But our fundamental goals must be to reduce dependency and upgrade the dignity of those who are infirm or disadvantaged. And here, a growing economy and support from family and community offer our best chance for a society where compassion is a way of life, where the old and infirm are cared for, the young and, yes, the unborn protected, and the unfortunate looked after and made self-sufficient. 我们已经开始将更适合由人民和州及地方政府处理的责任归还给他们。现在，联邦政府在社会同情事务中可以发挥作用。但我们的基本目标必须是减少依赖，提升体弱或弱势者的尊严。在这方面，不断增长的经济和来自家庭及社区的支持为我们提供了最好的机会，建立一个同情成为生活方式的社会，一个照顾老人和体弱者、保护年轻人乃至未出生者、照顾不幸者并使他们自给自足的社会。
Now, there is another area where the Federal Government can play a part. As an older American, I remember a time when people of different race, creed, or ethnic origin in our land found hatred and prejudice installed in social custom and, yes, in law. There's no story more heartening in our history than the progress that we've made toward the brotherhood of man that God intended for us. Let us resolve there will be no turning back or hesitation on the road to an America rich in dignity and abundant with opportunity for all our citizens. 现在，联邦政府在另一个领域也可以发挥作用。作为一个年长的美国人，我记得我们国家不同种族、信仰或族裔的人们在社会习俗中，甚至在法律中发现仇恨和偏见的时代。在我们的历史中，没有比我们朝着上帝为我们设想的人类兄弟情谊所取得的进步更令人振奋的故事了。让我们决心在通往一个充满尊严、为所有公民提供丰富机会的美国的道路上不再回头或犹豫。
Let us resolve that we, the people, will build an American opportunity society in which all of us—white and black, rich and poor, young and old—will go forward together, arm in arm. Again, let us remember that though our heritage is one of blood lines from every corner of the Earth, we are all Americans, pledged to carry on this last, best hope of man on Earth. 让我们决心，我们人民将建立一个美国机会社会，在这个社会中，我们所有人——白人和黑人、富人和穷人、年轻人和老年人——将携手共进。再次让我们记住，尽管我们的遗产是来自地球每个角落的血脉，但我们都是美国人，承诺延续这个地球上人类最后的、最好的希望。
I've spoken of our domestic goals and the limitations we should put on our National Government. Now let me turn to a task that is the primary responsibility of National Government—the safety and security of our people. 我已经谈到了我们的国内目标以及我们应该对联邦政府施加的限制。现在让我转向一项是联邦政府首要责任的任务——我们人民的安全保障。
Today, we utter no prayer more fervently than the ancient prayer for peace on Earth. Yet history has shown that peace does not come, nor will our freedom be preserved, by good will alone. There are those in the world who scorn our vision of human dignity and freedom. One nation, the Soviet Union, has conducted the greatest military buildup in the history of man, building arsenals of awesome offensive weapons. 今天，我们比任何古老的祈祷都更热切地祈祷地球上的和平。然而历史表明，仅靠善意无法带来和平，也无法维护我们的自由。世界上有些人蔑视我们对人类尊严和自由的愿景。有一个国家，苏联，进行了人类历史上最大规模的军事集结，建立了令人敬畏的进攻性武器库。
We've made progress in restoring our defense capability. But much remains to be done. There must be no wavering by us, nor any doubts by others, that America will meet her responsibilities to remain free, secure, and at peace. 我们在恢复国防能力方面取得了进展。但仍有许多工作要做。我们绝不能动摇，其他人也绝不能怀疑，美国将履行其保持自由、安全与和平的责任。
There is only one way safely and legitimately to reduce the cost of national security, and that is to reduce the need for it. And this we're trying to do in negotiations with the Soviet Union. We're not just discussing limits on a further increase of nuclear weapons; we seek, instead, to reduce their number. We seek the total elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth. 安全合理地降低国家安全成本的唯一方法是降低对它的需求。这正是我们在与苏联的谈判中努力做的事情。我们不仅仅是讨论限制核武器的进一步增加；相反，我们寻求减少它们的数量。我们寻求有一天彻底消除地球上的核武器。
Now, for decades, we and the Soviets have lived under the threat of mutual assured destruction—if either resorted to the use of nuclear weapons, the other could retaliate and destroy the one who had started it. Is there either logic or morality in believing that if one side threatens to kill tens of millions of our people our only recourse is to threaten killing tens of millions of theirs? 几十年来，我们和苏联人一直生活在相互确保摧毁的威胁之下——如果任何一方使用核武器，另一方可以报复并摧毁发动攻击的一方。认为如果一方威胁杀死数千万我们的人民，我们唯一的对策就是威胁杀死数千万他们的人民，这有逻辑或道德可言吗？
I have approved a research program to find, if we can, a security shield that will destroy nuclear missiles before they reach their target. It wouldn't kill people; it would destroy weapons. It wouldn't militarize space; it would help demilitarize the arsenals of Earth. It would render nuclear weapons obsolete. We will meet with the Soviets, hoping that we can agree on a way to rid the world of the threat of nuclear destruction. 我已经批准了一项研究计划，寻找如果可能的话，一种安全盾牌，在核导弹到达目标之前将其摧毁。它不会杀死人；它会摧毁武器。它不会使太空军事化；它将有助于使地球的武器库非军事化。它将使核武器过时。我们将与苏联人会面，希望我们能够就消除世界核毁灭威胁的方法达成一致。
We strive for peace and security, heartened by the changes all around us. Since the turn of the century, the number of democracies in the world has grown fourfold. Human freedom is on the march, and nowhere more so than in our own hemisphere. Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit. People, worldwide, hunger for the right of self-determination, for those inalienable rights that make for human dignity and progress. 我们为和平与安全而努力，为我们周围的变化而振奋。自世纪之交以来，世界上民主国家的数量增长了四倍。人类自由正在前进，在我们自己的半球更是如此。自由是人类精神最深切、最高尚的愿望之一。全世界的人民渴望自决权，渴望那些构成人类尊严和进步的不可剥夺的权利。
America must remain freedom's staunchest friend, for freedom is our best ally and it is the world's only hope to conquer poverty and preserve peace. Every blow we inflict against poverty will be a blow against its dark allies of oppression and war. Every victory for human freedom will be a victory for world peace. 美国必须始终是自由最坚定的朋友，因为自由是我们最好的盟友，也是世界战胜贫困、维护和平的唯一希望。我们对贫困的每一次打击都将是对其黑暗盟友压迫和战争的打击。人类自由的每一次胜利都将是世界和平的胜利。
So, we go forward today, a nation still mighty in its youth and powerful in its purpose. With our alliances strengthened, with our economy leading the world to a new age of economic expansion, we look to a future rich in possibilities. And all of this is because we worked and acted together, not as members of political parties but as Americans. 因此，我们今天前进，一个在青春中仍然强大、在目标上仍然有力的国家。随着我们的联盟得到加强，随着我们的经济引领世界进入经济扩张的新时代，我们展望一个充满可能性的未来。所有这一切都是因为我们共同努力和行动，不是作为政党成员，而是作为美国人。
My friends, we live in a world that's lit by lightning. So much is changing and will change, but so much endures and transcends time. 朋友们，我们生活在一个被闪电照亮的世界里。如此多的事情正在改变，并且将继续改变，但如此多的事情持久存在并超越时间。
History is a ribbon, always unfurling. History is a journey. And as we continue our journey, we think of those who traveled before us. We stand again at the steps of this symbol of our democracy—well, we would have been standing at the steps if it hadn't gotten so cold. [Laughter] Now we're standing inside this symbol of our democracy, and we see and hear again the echoes of our past: a general falls to his knees in the hard snow of Valley Forge; a lonely President paces the darkened halls and ponders his struggle to preserve the Union; the men of the Alamo call out encouragement to each other; a settler pushes west and sings a song, and the song echoes out forever and fills the unknowing air. 历史是一条不断展开的丝带。历史是一段旅程。当我们继续我们的旅程时，我们会想到那些在我们之前走过的人。我们再次站在这个民主象征的台阶上——嗯，如果天气没有变得这么冷，我们本来会站在台阶上的。[笑声]现在我们站在这个民主象征的内部，我们再次看到和听到过去的回声：一位将军在福吉谷坚硬的雪地里跪下；一位孤独的总统在黑暗的大厅里踱步，思考他维护联邦的斗争；阿拉莫的人们互相鼓励；一位定居者向西推进，唱着一首歌，歌声永远回荡，充满未知的空气。
It is the American sound. It is hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic, daring, decent, and fair. That's our heritage, that's our song. We sing it still. For all our problems, our differences, we are together as of old. We raise our voices to the God who is the Author of this most tender music. And may He continue to hold us close as we fill the world with our sound—in unity, affection, and love—one people under God, dedicated to the dream of freedom that He has placed in the human heart, called upon now to pass that dream on to a waiting and hopeful world.God bless you, and God bless America. 这是美国之声。它充满希望、胸怀宽广、理想主义、勇敢、体面和公平。那是我们的遗产，那是我们的歌。我们仍然唱着它。尽管我们有种种问题和分歧，我们仍像过去一样团结在一起。我们向上帝发出声音，他是这首最温柔音乐的作者。愿他继续紧紧拥抱我们，当我们用我们的声音——团结、友爱和爱——充满世界时——在上帝之下的一个民族，致力于他置于人类心中的自由梦想，现在被召唤将这个梦想传递给一个等待和充满希望的世界。上帝保佑你们，上帝保佑美利坚合众国。