My fellow citizens, today we celebrate the mystery of American renewal. This ceremony is held in the depth of winter, but by the words we speak and the faces we show the world, we force the spring, a spring reborn in the world's oldest democracy that brings forth the vision and courage to reinvent America. When our Founders boldly declared America's independence to the world and our purposes to the Almighty, they knew that America, to endure, would have to change; not change for change's sake but change to preserve America's ideals: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. Though we marched to the music of our time, our mission is timeless. Each generation of Americans must define what it means to be an American. 我的同胞们，今天我们庆祝美国复兴的奇迹。这场典礼在隆冬举行，但通过我们所说的话和我们向世界展示的面孔，我们催生出春天——一个在世界最古老的民主制度中重生的春天，它带来重塑美国的愿景和勇气。当我们的开国元勋们勇敢地向世界宣布美国独立，并向上帝表明我们的宗旨时，他们知道，美国要想长存，就必须改变；不是为了改变而改变，而是为了维护美国的理想：生命、自由和追求幸福。尽管我们随着时代的音乐前进，但我们的使命是永恒的。每一代美国人都必须定义什么是美国人。
On behalf of our Nation, I salute my predecessor, President Bush, for his half-century of service to America. And I thank the millions of men and women whose steadfastness and sacrifice triumphed over depression, fascism, and communism. 代表我们的国家，我向前任总统布什致敬，感谢他半个世纪来为美国服务。我还要感谢数百万男男女女，他们的坚定和牺牲战胜了大萧条、法西斯主义和共产主义。
Today, a generation raised in the shadows of the cold war assumes new responsibilities in a world warmed by the sunshine of freedom but threatened still by ancient hatreds and new plagues. Raised in unrivaled prosperity, we inherit an economy that is still the world's strongest but is weakened by business failures, stagnant wages, increasing inequality, and deep divisions among our own people. 今天，在冷战阴影下成长的一代人，在一个被自由阳光温暖但仍受到古老仇恨和新瘟疫威胁的世界里，承担起新的责任。在无与伦比的繁荣中成长起来的我们，继承了一个仍然是世界上最强劲但被企业倒闭、工资停滞、不平等加剧以及我们自身人民之间深刻分裂所削弱的经济。
When George Washington first took the oath I have just sworn to uphold, news traveled slowly across the land by horseback and across the ocean by boat. Now, the sights and sounds of this ceremony are broadcast instantaneously to billions around the world. Communications and commerce are global. Investment is mobile. Technology is almost magical. And ambition for a better life is now universal. 当乔治·华盛顿首次宣誓我刚刚宣誓维护的誓言时，消息通过马背缓慢地穿越大陆，通过船只穿越海洋。现在，这场典礼的景象和声音瞬间广播到全球数十亿人。通信和商业是全球性的。投资是流动的。技术几乎是神奇的。对更好生活的渴望现在是普遍的。
We earn our livelihood in America today in peaceful competition with people all across the Earth. Profound and powerful forces are shaking and remaking our world. And the urgent question of our time is whether we can make change our friend and not our enemy. This new world has already enriched the lives of millions of Americans who are able to compete and win in it. But when most people are working harder for less; when others cannot work at all; when the cost of health care devastates families and threatens to bankrupt our enterprises, great and small; when the fear of crime robs law-abiding citizens of their freedom; and when millions of poor children cannot even imagine the lives we are calling them to lead, we have not made change our friend. 我们今天在美国的生计是通过与全世界人民的和平竞争获得的。深刻而强大的力量正在动摇和重塑我们的世界。我们这个时代紧迫的问题是，我们能否让变革成为我们的朋友而不是敌人。这个新世界已经丰富了数百万能够在其中竞争并获胜的美国人的生活。但当大多数人工作更努力却收入更少；当其他人根本找不到工作；当医疗保健费用摧毁家庭并威胁到我们大小企业的破产；当犯罪恐惧剥夺了守法公民的自由；当数百万贫困儿童甚至无法想象我们召唤他们去过的生活时，我们还没有让变革成为我们的朋友。
We know we have to face hard truths and take strong steps, but we have not done so; instead, we have drifted. And that drifting has eroded our resources, fractured our economy, and shaken our confidence. Though our challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths. Americans have ever been a restless, questing, hopeful people. And we must bring to our task today the vision and will of those who came before us. From our Revolution to the Civil War, to the Great Depression, to the civil rights movement, our people have always mustered the determination to construct from these crises the pillars of our history. Thomas Jefferson believed that to preserve the very foundations of our Nation, we would need dramatic change from time to time. Well, my fellow Americans, this is our time. Let us embrace it. 我们知道我们必须面对艰难的现实并采取有力措施，但我们没有这样做；相反，我们一直在漂荡。这种漂荡侵蚀了我们的资源，分裂了我们的经济，动摇了我们的信心。尽管我们面临的挑战令人畏惧，但我们的力量同样强大。美国人向来是一个不安分、勇于探索、充满希望的民族。我们今天必须以先辈们的愿景和意志来完成我们的任务。从革命到内战，到大萧条，到民权运动，我们的人民总是鼓起决心，从这些危机中构建我们历史的支柱。托马斯·杰斐逊认为，为了维护我们国家的根基，我们需要不时地进行戏剧性的变革。好吧，我的同胞们，这就是我们的时代。让我们拥抱它。
Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. And so today we pledge an end to the era of deadlock and drift, and a new season of American renewal has begun. 我们的民主不仅必须是世界羡慕的对象，而且必须是我们自身复兴的引擎。美国没有任何问题是美国的正确之处无法解决的。因此，今天我们承诺结束僵局和漂荡的时代，一个美国复兴的新季节已经开始。
To renew America, we must be bold. We must do what no generation has had to do before. We must invest more in our own people, in their jobs, and in their future, and at the same time cut our massive debt. And we must do so in a world in which we must compete for every opportunity. It will not be easy. It will require sacrifice, but it can be done and done fairly, not choosing sacrifice for its own sake but for our own sake. We must provide for our Nation the way a family provides for its children. 要复兴美国，我们必须大胆。我们必须做以前任何一代人都不必做的事情。我们必须在我们自己的人民、他们的工作和他们的未来上投入更多，同时削减我们巨额的债务。而且我们必须在一个必须为每个机会竞争的世界中做到这一点。这并不容易。这需要牺牲，但可以做到，而且可以公平地做到，不是为了牺牲而牺牲，而是为了我们自己。我们必须像家庭养育孩子一样为我们的国家提供保障。
Our Founders saw themselves in the light of posterity. We can do no less. Anyone who has ever watched a child's eyes wander into sleep knows what posterity is. Posterity is the world to come: the world for whom we hold our ideals, from whom we have borrowed our planet, and to whom we bear sacred responsibility. We must do what America does best: offer more opportunity to all and demand more responsibility from all. It is time to break the bad habit of expecting something for nothing from our Government or from each other. Let us all take more responsibility not only for ourselves and our families but for our communities and our country. 我们的开国元勋们从后代的角度看待自己。我们不能做得更少。任何曾经看到孩子的眼睛进入梦乡的人都知道后代是什么。后代就是即将到来的世界：我们为之坚守理想的世界，我们从其手中借用了我们星球的世界，我们对其负有神圣责任的世界。我们必须做美国最擅长的事情：为所有人提供更多机会，并要求所有人承担更多责任。是时候打破从政府或彼此那里不劳而获的坏习惯了。让我们所有人都承担更多责任，不仅对我们自己和我们的家庭，而且对我们的社区和我们的国家。
To renew America, we must revitalize our democracy. This beautiful Capital, like every capital since the dawn of civilization, is often a place of intrigue and calculation. Powerful people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is in and who is out, who is up and who is down, forgetting those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and pays our way. Americans deserve better. And in this city today there are people who want to do better. And so I say to all of you here: Let us resolve to reform our politics so that power and privilege no longer shout down the voice of the people. Let us put aside personal advantage so that we can feel the pain and see the promise of America. Let us resolve to make our Government a place for what Franklin Roosevelt called bold, persistent experimentation, a Government for our tomorrows, not our yesterdays. Let us give this Capital back to the people to whom it belongs. 要复兴美国，我们必须振兴我们的民主。这座美丽的首都，就像文明之初以来的每一个首都一样，常常是一个阴谋和算计的地方。有权势的人争权夺利，无休止地担心谁在台上谁在台下，谁上升谁下降，忘记了那些用血汗将我们送到这里并支付我们费用的人们。美国人值得更好的。今天在这个城市里，有一些人想要做得更好。因此，我对在座的所有人说：让我们下定决心改革我们的政治，让权力和特权不再压制人民的声音。让我们放下个人利益，以便我们能够感受到美国的痛苦并看到美国的希望。让我们下定决心使我们的政府成为富兰克林·罗斯福所说的大胆、持续实验的地方，一个为我们的明天而不是昨天服务的政府。让我们把这座首都还给它所属于的人民。
To renew America, we must meet challenges abroad as well as at home. There is no longer a clear division between what is foreign and what is domestic. The world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS crisis, the world arms race: they affect us all. Today, as an older order passes, the new world is more free but less stable. Communism's collapse has called forth old animosities and new dangers. Clearly, America must continue to lead the world we did so much to make. 要复兴美国，我们必须在国外和国内迎接挑战。不再有明确的内外之分。世界经济、世界环境、世界艾滋病危机、世界军备竞赛：它们都影响着我们所有人。今天，随着旧秩序的逝去，新世界更加自由但不那么稳定。共产主义的崩溃唤起了旧的仇恨和新的危险。显然，美国必须继续领导我们付出巨大努力所创造的世界。
While America rebuilds at home, we will not shrink from the challenges nor fail to seize the opportunities of this new world. Together with our friends and allies, we will work to shape change, lest it engulf us. When our vital interests are challenged or the will and conscience of the international community is defied, we will act, with peaceful diplomacy whenever possible, with force when necessary. The brave Americans serving our Nation today in the Persian Gulf, in Somalia, and wherever else they stand are testament to our resolve. But our greatest strength is the power of our ideas, which are still new in many lands. Across the world we see them embraced, and we rejoice. Our hopes, our hearts, our hands are with those on every continent who are building democracy and freedom. Their cause is America's cause. 在美国重建国内的同时，我们不会回避挑战，也不会错过这个新世界的机遇。与我们的朋友和盟友一起，我们将努力塑造变革，以免它吞没我们。当我们的重大利益受到挑战或国际社会的意志和良知遭到蔑视时，我们将采取行动，尽可能用和平外交，必要时用武力。今天在波斯湾、索马里以及其他任何地方为国家服务的勇敢美国人证明了我们的决心。但我们最大的力量是我们思想的力量，这些思想在许多国家仍然是新的。在世界各地，我们看到它们被接受，我们感到高兴。我们的希望、我们的心、我们的手与每个大陆上正在建设民主和自由的人们在一起。他们的事业就是美国的事业。
The American people have summoned the change we celebrate today. You have raised your voices in an unmistakable chorus. You have cast your votes in historic numbers. And you have changed the face of Congress, the Presidency, and the political process itself. Yes, you, my fellow Americans, have forced the spring. Now we must do the work the season demands. To that work I now turn with all the authority of my office. I ask the Congress to join with me. But no President, no Congress, no Government can undertake this mission alone. 美国人民召唤了我们今天庆祝的变革。你们以明确的合唱发出了声音。你们以历史性的数字投下了选票。你们改变了国会、总统职位和政治进程本身的面貌。是的，你们，我的同胞们，催生了春天。现在我们必须完成这个季节要求的工作。我现在以我职位的全部权力转向这项工作。我请求国会与我一起努力。但没有任何总统、任何国会、任何政府能够独自承担这项使命。
My fellow Americans, you, too, must play your part in our renewal. I challenge a new generation of young Americans to a season of service: to act on your idealism by helping troubled children, keeping company with those in need, reconnecting our torn communities. There is so much to be done; enough, indeed, for millions of others who are still young in spirit to give of themselves in service, too. In serving, we recognize a simple but powerful truth: We need each other, and we must care for one another. 我的同胞们，你们也必须在我们的复兴中发挥自己的作用。我向新一代美国青年提出挑战，号召他们服务一个季节：通过帮助有困难的儿童、陪伴有需要的人、重新连接我们破碎的社区来践行你们的理想主义。有很多事情要做；确实足够多，足以让数百万心态仍然年轻的人也投身服务。在服务中，我们认识到一个简单但强大的真理：我们需要彼此，我们必须关心彼此。
Today we do more than celebrate America. We rededicate ourselves to the very idea of America, an idea born in revolution and renewed through two centuries of challenge; an idea tempered by the knowledge that, but for fate, we, the fortunate, and the unfortunate might have been each other; an idea ennobled by the faith that our Nation can summon from its myriad diversity the deepest measure of unity; an idea infused with the conviction that America's long, heroic journey must go forever upward. 今天我们不仅仅是庆祝美国。我们重新致力于美国的理念本身——一个诞生于革命、在两个世纪的挑战中更新的理念；一个因认识到若非命运，我们幸运者和不幸者可能成为彼此而变得温和的理念；一个因相信我们的国家可以从其无数的多样性中召唤最深层次的团结而变得崇高的理念；一个因坚信美国漫长而英勇的旅程必须永远向上而充满信念的理念。
And so, my fellow Americans, as we stand at the edge of the 21st century, let us begin anew with energy and hope, with faith and discipline. And let us work until our work is done. The Scripture says, "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." From this joyful mountaintop of celebration we hear a call to service in the valley. We have heard the trumpets. We have changed the guard. And now, each in our own way and with God's help, we must answer the call. 因此，我的同胞们，当我们站在21世纪的边缘时，让我们以精力和希望、以信念和纪律重新开始。让我们继续工作，直到我们的工作完成。圣经说："我们行善，不可丧志；因为若不灰心，到了时候就要收成。"从这个欢乐的庆祝山顶，我们听到了山谷中服务的召唤。我们听到了号角声。我们已经换岗。现在，在上帝的帮助下，我们每个人都必须以自己的方式回应召唤。
Thank you, and God bless you all. 谢谢大家，上帝保佑你们所有人。