My fellow citizens, at this last Presidential Inauguration of the 20th century, let us lift our eyes toward the challenges that await us in the next century. It is our great good fortune that time and chance have put us not only at the edge of a new century, in a new millennium, but on the edge of a bright new prospect in human affairs, a moment that will define our course and our character for decades to comes. [See APP Note.] We must keep our old democracy forever young. Guided by the ancient vision of a promised land, let us set our sights upon a land of new promise. 各位公民，在20世纪最后一次总统就职典礼上，让我们将目光投向新世纪等待我们的挑战。我们无比幸运，时间和机遇不仅将我们置于新的世纪、新的千年的边缘，更置于人类事务一个光明新前景的边缘——一个将决定我们未来数十年道路和品格的时刻。我们必须让我们古老的民主永远年轻。在应许之地的古老愿景指引下，让我们将目光投向一片新希望之地。
The promise of America was born in the 18th century out of the bold conviction that we are all created equal. It was extended and preserved in the 19th century, when our Nation spread across the continent, saved the Union, and abolished the awful scourge of slavery. 美国的承诺诞生于18世纪，源于我们人生而平等的大胆信念。这一承诺在19世纪得到扩展和维护，当时我们的国家横跨大陆，拯救了联邦，并废除了奴隶制这一可怕的祸害。
Then, in turmoil and triumph, that promise exploded onto the world stage to make this the American Century. And what a century it has been. America became the world's mightiest industrial power, saved the world from tyranny in two World Wars and a long cold war, and time and again reached out across the globe to millions who, like us, longed for the blessings of liberty. 然后，在动荡与胜利中，这一承诺在世界舞台上爆发，使这个世纪成为美国世纪。这是多么伟大的一个世纪。美国成为世界上最强大的工业力量，在两次世界大战和漫长的冷战中拯救了世界，并一次又一次地向全球数百万渴望自由福祉的人们伸出援手。
Along the way, Americans produced a great middle class and security in old age, built unrivaled centers of learning and opened public schools to all, split the atom and explored the heavens, invented the computer and the microchip, and deepened the wellspring of justice by making a revolution in civil rights for African-Americans and all minorities and extending the circle of citizenship, opportunity, and dignity to women. 一路走来，美国人建立了庞大的中产阶级和老年保障体系，建立了无与伦比的学习中心并向所有人开放公立学校，分裂了原子并探索了太空，发明了计算机和微芯片，并通过为非洲裔美国人和所有少数民族进行民权革命、将公民身份、机会和尊严的圈子扩展到妇女身上，加深了正义的源泉。
Now, for the third time, a new century is upon us and another time to choose. We began the 19th century with a choice: to spread our Nation from coast to coast. We began the 20th century with a choice: to harness the industrial revolution to our values of free enterprise, conservation, and human decency. Those choices made all the difference. At the dawn of the 21st century, a free people must now choose to shape the forces of the information age and the global society, to unleash the limitless potential of all our people, and yes, to form a more perfect Union. 现在，第三次，一个新的世纪即将到来，又是一个选择的时刻。我们在19世纪初面临一个选择：将我们的国家从海岸扩展到海岸。我们在20世纪初面临一个选择：将工业革命与我们的自由企业、保护和人类尊严价值观相结合。这些选择带来了巨大的改变。在21世纪的黎明，自由的人民现在必须选择塑造信息时代和全球社会的力量，释放我们所有人无限的潜力，是的，构建一个更完美的联邦。
When last we gathered, our march to this new future seemed less certain than it does today. We vowed then to set a clear course to renew our Nation. In these 4 years, we have been touched by tragedy, exhilarated by challenge, strengthened by achievement. America stands alone as the world's indispensable nation. Once again, our economy is the strongest on Earth. Once again, we are building stronger families, thriving communities, better educational opportunities, a cleaner environment. Problems that once seemed destined to deepen, now bend to our efforts. Our streets are safer, and record numbers of our fellow citizens have moved from welfare to work. And once again, we have resolved for our time a great debate over the role of Government. Today we can declare: Government is not the problem, and Government is not the solution. We—the American people—we are the solution. Our Founders understood that well and gave us a democracy strong enough to endure for centuries, flexible enough to face our common challenges and advance our common dreams in each new day. 上一次我们相聚时，我们迈向这个新未来的步伐似乎不如今天确定。我们当时发誓要为振兴国家设定明确的方向。在这四年里，我们经历了悲剧，为挑战感到振奋，因成就而变得更强大。美国作为世界不可或缺的国家屹立不倒。我们的经济再次成为地球上最强劲的。我们再次建设更强大的家庭、繁荣的社区、更好的教育机会、更清洁的环境。曾经似乎注定要加深的问题，现在正屈服于我们的努力。我们的街道更安全了，创纪录数量的同胞从福利转向工作。我们再次为我们这个时代解决了关于政府角色的伟大辩论。今天我们可以宣布：政府不是问题，政府也不是解决方案。我们——美国人民——我们才是解决方案。我们的开国元勋们清楚地理解这一点，并赋予我们一个足够强大、能够持续数百年的民主制度，足够灵活，能够在每一天面对我们共同的挑战并推进我们共同的梦想。
As times change, so Government must change. We need a new Government for a new century, humble enough not to try to solve all our problems for us but strong enough to give us the tools to solve our problems for ourselves, a Government that is smaller, lives within its means, and does more with less. Yet where it can stand up for our values and interests around the world, and where it can give Americans the power to make a real difference in their everyday lives, Government should do more, not less. The preeminent mission of our new Government is to give all Americans an opportunity, not a guarantee but a real opportunity, to build better lives. 随着时代的变化，政府也必须改变。我们需要一个适合新世纪的新政府，谦逊到不试图为我们解决所有问题，但强大到能够给我们工具让我们自己解决问题——一个更小、量入为出、以少做多的政府。然而，在它能够在全世界捍卫我们的价值观和利益的地方，在它能够给予美国人在日常生活中产生真正影响的力量的地方，政府应该做得更多，而不是更少。我们新政府的首要使命是给所有美国人一个机会——不是保证，而是一个真正的机会——来建设更好的生活。
Beyond that, my fellow citizens, the future is up to us. Our Founders taught us that the preservation of our liberty and our Union depends upon responsible citizenship. And we need a new sense of responsibility for a new century. There is work to do, work that Government alone cannot do: teaching children to read, hiring people off welfare rolls, coming out from behind locked doors and shuttered windows to help reclaim our streets from drugs and gangs and crime, taking time out of our own lives to serve others. 除此之外，我的同胞们，未来取决于我们。我们的开国元勋教导我们，维护我们的自由和联邦取决于负责任的公民。我们需要一种新世纪的新责任感。有工作要做，这些工作是政府独自无法完成的：教孩子读书，雇用脱离福利名册的人，走出紧闭的门和关闭的窗户，帮助从毒品、帮派和犯罪中夺回我们的街道，抽出我们自己的时间为他人服务。
Each and every one of us, in our own way, must assume personal responsibility not only for ourselves and our families but for our neighbors and our Nation. Our greatest responsibility is to embrace a new spirit of community for a new century. For any one of us to succeed, we must succeed as one America. The challenge of our past remains the challenge of our future: Will we be one Nation, one people, with one common destiny, or not? Will we all come together, or come apart? 我们每个人都必须以自己的方式承担个人责任——不仅对我们自己和我们的家庭，而且对我们的邻居和我们的国家。我们最大的责任是拥抱新世纪的新社区精神。为了我们中任何一个人的成功，我们必须作为一个美国共同成功。我们过去的挑战仍然是我们未来的挑战：我们将成为一个国家、一个民族、拥有共同命运，还是不会？我们将共同团结，还是分裂？
The divide of race has been America's constant curse. And each new wave of immigrants gives new targets to old prejudices. Prejudice and contempt cloaked in the pretense of religious or political conviction are no different. These forces have nearly destroyed our Nation in the past. They plague us still. They fuel the fanaticism of terror. And they torment the lives of millions in fractured nations all around the world. 种族分歧一直是美国永恒的诅咒。每一波新移民都给旧偏见带来了新的目标。以宗教或政治信念为幌子的偏见和轻蔑并无不同。这些力量在过去几乎摧毁了我们的国家。它们仍然困扰着我们。它们助长了恐怖的狂热。它们折磨着世界各地分裂国家中数百万人的生活。
These obsessions cripple both those who hate and of course those who are hated, robbing both of what they might become. We cannot, we will not, succumb to the dark impulses that lurk in the far regions of the soul everywhere. We shall overcome them. And we shall replace them with the generous spirit of a people who feel at home with one another. Our rich texture of racial, religious, and political diversity will be a godsend in the 21st century. Great rewards will come to those who can live together, learn together, work together, forge new ties that bind together. 这些偏执既残害了仇恨者，也残害了被仇恨者，剥夺了双方本可以成为的样子。我们不能，也绝不会，屈服于潜伏在世界各地灵魂深处的黑暗冲动。我们将克服它们。我们将用一个彼此感到自在的民族的慷慨精神取而代之。我们丰富的种族、宗教和政治多样性将在21世纪成为天赐之物。那些能够共同生活、共同学习、共同工作、共同建立新纽带的人将获得巨大的回报。
As this new era approaches, we can already see its broad outlines. Ten years ago, the Internet was the mystical province of physicists; today, it is a commonplace encyclopedia for millions of schoolchildren. Scientists now are decoding the blueprint of human life. Cures for our most feared illnesses seem close at hand. The world is no longer divided into two hostile camps. Instead, now we are building bonds with nations that once were our adversaries. Growing connections of commerce and culture give us a chance to lift the fortunes and spirits of people the world over. And for the very first time in all of history, more people on this planet live under democracy than dictatorship. 随着这个新时代的临近，我们已经可以看到它的大致轮廓。十年前，互联网还是物理学家的神秘领域；今天，它是数百万学童的普通百科全书。科学家们正在解码人类生命的蓝图。我们最害怕的疾病的治疗方法似乎触手可及。世界不再分裂为两个敌对阵营。相反，我们现在与曾经是我们对手的国家建立联系。日益增长的商业和文化联系给我们一个机会，提升全世界人民的财富和精神。而且，在整个人类历史上第一次，这个星球上生活在民主之下的人比生活在独裁之下的人更多。
My fellow Americans, as we look back at this remarkable century, we may ask, can we hope not just to follow but even to surpass the achievements of the 20th century in America and to avoid the awful bloodshed that stained its legacy? To that question, every American here and every American in our land today must answer a resounding, "Yes!" This is the heart of our task. With a new vision of Government, a new sense of responsibility, a new spirit of community, we will sustain America's journey. 我的美国同胞们，当我们回顾这个非凡的世纪时，我们可能会问：我们能否希望不仅追随，甚至超越美国20世纪的成就，并避免玷污其遗产的可怕流血？对于这个问题，今天在这里的每一个美国人，以及我们国家的每一个美国人，都必须响亮地回答："是的！"这是我们任务的核心。凭借新的政府愿景、新的责任感、新的社区精神，我们将继续美国的征程。
The promise we sought in a new land, we will find again in a land of new promise. In this new land, education will be every citizen's most prized possession. Our schools will have the highest standards in the world, igniting the spark of possibility in the eyes of every girl and every boy. And the doors of higher education will be open to all. The knowledge and power of the information age will be within reach not just of the few but of every classroom, every library, every child. Parents and children will have time not only to work but to read and play together. And the plans they make at their kitchen table will be those of a better home, a better job, the certain chance to go to college. 我们在一片新土地上寻求的承诺，我们将在一片新希望之地再次找到。在这片新土地上，教育将成为每个公民最珍贵的财富。我们的学校将拥有世界上最高的标准，点燃每个女孩和每个男孩眼中可能性的火花。高等教育的大门将向所有人敞开。信息时代的知识和力量将不仅为少数人所掌握，而且为每个教室、每个图书馆、每个孩子所掌握。父母和孩子将有时间不仅工作，而且一起阅读和玩耍。他们在餐桌旁制定的计划将是一个更好的家、一份更好的工作、上大学的确定机会。
Our streets will echo again with the laughter of our children, because no one will try to shoot them or sell them drugs anymore. Everyone who can work, will work, with today's permanent under class part of tomorrow's growing middle class. New miracles of medicine at last will reach not only those who can claim care now but the children and hard-working families too long denied. 我们的街道将再次回荡着孩子们的笑声，因为不再有人试图向他们开枪或卖给他们毒品。每个能工作的人都将工作，今天的永久下层阶级将成为明天不断壮大的中产阶级的一部分。医学的新奇迹终于将不仅惠及现在能够获得护理的人，而且惠及长期被剥夺护理的儿童和勤劳家庭。
We will stand mighty for peace and freedom and maintain a strong defense against terror and destruction. Our children will sleep free from the threat of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. Ports and airports, farms and factories will thrive with trade and innovation and ideas. And the world's greatest democracy will lead a whole world of democracies. 我们将为和平与自由坚定地站立，并保持强大的防御以抵御恐怖和破坏。我们的孩子将在没有核、化学或生物武器威胁的情况下安然入睡。港口和机场、农场和工厂将因贸易、创新和思想而繁荣。世界上最伟大的民主将领导整个民主世界。
Our land of new promise will be a nation that meets its obligations, a nation that balances its budget but never loses the balance of its values, a nation where our grandparents have secure retirement and health care and their grandchildren know we have made the reforms necessary to sustain those benefits for their time, a nation that fortifies the world's most productive economy even as it protects the great natural bounty of our water, air, and majestic land. And in this land of new promise, we will have reformed our politics so that the voice of the people will always speak louder than the din of narrow interests, regaining the participation and deserving the trust of all Americans. 我们的新希望之地将是一个履行其义务的国家，一个平衡预算但永不失去其价值观平衡的国家，一个我们的祖父母拥有安全退休和医疗保健、其孙辈知道我们已进行必要改革以在他们那个时代维持这些福利的国家，一个在保护我们水、空气和壮丽土地的巨大自然恩赐的同时巩固世界最具生产力经济的国家。在这片新希望之地，我们将改革我们的政治，使人民的声音永远比狭隘利益的喧嚣更响亮，重新获得所有美国人的参与并值得他们的信任。
Fellow citizens, let us build that America, a nation ever moving forward toward realizing the full potential of all its citizens. Prosperity and power, yes, they are important, and we must maintain them. But let us never forget, the greatest progress we have made and the greatest progress we have yet to make is in the human heart. In the end, all the world's wealth and a thousand armies are no match for the strength and decency of the human spirit. 各位公民，让我们建设那个美国——一个永远向前迈进、实现所有公民全部潜力的国家。繁荣与力量，是的，它们很重要，我们必须保持它们。但让我们永远不要忘记，我们已经取得的最大进步和我们尚未取得的最大进步在于人类的心灵。最终，世界上所有的财富和千军万马都无法与人类精神的力量和尊严相匹敌。
Thirty-four years ago, the man whose life we celebrate today spoke to us down there, at the other end of this Mall, in words that moved the conscience of a nation. Like a prophet of old, he told of his dream that one day America would rise up and treat all its citizens as equals before the law and in the heart. Martin Luther King's dream was the American dream. His quest is our quest: the ceaseless striving to live out our true creed. Our history has been built on such dreams and labors. And by our dreams and labors, we will redeem the promise of America in the 21st century. 三十四年前，今天我们庆祝其生命的那个人在那边——在这个广场的另一端——向我们发表讲话，他的话感动了一个国家的良知。像一位古代先知，他讲述了他的梦想：有一天美国将站起来，在法律面前和心中平等对待所有公民。马丁·路德·金的梦想就是美国梦。他的追求就是我们的追求：不懈努力实现我们真正的信条。我们的历史就是建立在这样的梦想和努力之上的。通过我们的梦想和努力，我们将在21世纪兑现美国的承诺。
To that effort I pledge all my strength and every power of my office. I ask the Members of Congress here to join in that pledge. The American people returned to office a President of one party and a Congress of another. Surely they did not do this to advance the politics of petty bickering and extreme partisanship they plainly deplore. No, they call on us instead to be repairers of the breach and to move on with America's mission. America demands and deserves big things from us, and nothing big ever came from being small. Let us remember the timeless wisdom of Cardinal Bernardin, when facing the end of his own life. He said, "It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time on acrimony and division." 为了这项努力，我承诺投入我所有的力量和我职位的每一项权力。我请在座的国会议员们加入这一承诺。美国人民选举了一个政党的总统和另一个政党的国会。他们这样做肯定不是为了推进他们明显谴责的琐碎争吵和极端党派政治。不，他们反而呼吁我们成为裂痕的修复者，并继续美国的使命。美国要求并值得我们做出伟大的事情，而伟大的事情从来不是来自渺小。让我们记住红衣主教贝尔纳丁在面临生命尽头时的永恒智慧。他说："把宝贵的时间浪费在尖刻和分裂上是错误的。"
Fellow citizens, we must not waste the precious gift of this time. For all of us are on that same journey of our lives, and our journey, too, will come to an end. But the journey of our America must go on. 各位公民，我们绝不能浪费这段宝贵的时间。因为我们所有人都在人生的同一段旅程上，而我们的旅程也终将结束。但我们美国的旅程必须继续下去。
And so, my fellow Americans, we must be strong, for there is much to dare. The demands of our time are great, and they are different. Let us meet them with faith and courage, with patience and a grateful, happy heart. Let us shape the hope of this day into the noblest chapter in our history. Yes, let us build our bridge, a bridge wide enough and strong enough for every American to cross over to a blessed land of new promise. 因此，我的美国同胞们，我们必须坚强，因为有很多事情需要勇敢面对。我们这个时代的要求是伟大的，而且是不同的。让我们以信念和勇气、耐心和一颗感恩、快乐的心来迎接它们。让我们将今天的希望塑造成我们历史上最高尚的篇章。是的，让我们建造我们的桥梁，一座足够宽广、足够坚固的桥梁，让每个美国人都能跨越到一片有福的新希望之地。
May those generations whose faces we cannot yet see, whose names we may never know, say of us here that we led our beloved land into a new century with the American dream alive for all her children, with the American promise of a more perfect Union a reality for all her people, with America's bright flame of freedom spreading throughout all the world. 愿那些我们尚未见过面、也许永远不会知道名字的后代们，对我们在这里的人说，我们带领我们心爱的国家进入了一个新世纪，美国梦对她所有的孩子依然鲜活，美国更完美联邦的承诺对她所有的人民成为现实，美国自由的明亮火焰在全世界蔓延。
From the height of this place and the summit of this century, let us go forth. May God strengthen our hands for the good work ahead, and always, always bless our America. 从这个地方的高度和这个世纪的顶峰，让我们向前迈进。愿上帝加强我们手中即将到来的美好工作，永远，永远保佑我们的美国。