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This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together.
这一代美国人经历了危机的考验，经济危机坚定了我们的决心，证明了我们的恢复力。长达十年的战争正在结束，经济的复苏已经开始。美国的可能性是无限的，因为我们拥有当今没有边界的世界所需要的所有品质：年轻与活力、多样性与开放、无穷的冒险精神以及创造的天赋才能。我亲爱的同胞们，我们正是为此刻而生，我们更要在此刻团结一致，抓住当下的机会。
For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship. We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.
因为我们，美国人民，清楚如果只有不断萎缩的少数人群体获得成功，而大多数人不能成功，我们的国家就无法成功。我们相信，美国的繁荣必须建立在不断上升的中产阶级的宽阔臂膀之上，我们知道美国的繁荣只有这样才能实现。只有当每个人都能找到工作中的自立与自豪时才能实现。只有当诚实劳动获得的薪水足够让家庭摆脱困苦的悬崖时才能实现。我们忠诚于我们的事业，保证让一个出生于最贫穷环境中的小女孩都能知道，她有同其他所有人一样的成功机会。因为她是一个美国人，她是自由的、平等的。她的自由平等不仅由上帝来见证，更由我们亲手保护。
We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher. But while the means will change, our purpose endures: a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American. That is what this moment requires. That is what will give real meaning to our creed.
我们知道，我们已然陈旧的程序不足以满足时代的需要。我们必须应用新理念和新技术重塑我们的政府，改进我们的税法，改革我们的学校，让我们的公民拥有他们所需要的技能，更加努力地工作，学更多的知识，向更高处发展。这意味着变革，我们的目标是：国家可以奖励每个美国人的努力和果断。这是现在需要的。这将给我们的信条赋予真正的意义。
We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity. We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future. For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty, and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn. We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other – through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security – these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.
我们，人民，仍然认为，每个公民都应当获得基本的安全和尊严。我们必须做出艰难抉择，降低医疗成本，缩减赤字规模。但我们拒绝在照顾建设国家的这一代和投资即将建设国家的下一代间做出选择。因为我们记得过去的教训：老年人的夕阳时光在贫困中度过，家有残障儿童的父母无处求助。我们相信，在这个国家，自由不只是那些幸运儿的专属，或者说幸福只属于少数人。我们知道，不管我们怎样负责任地生活，我们任何人在任何时候都可能面临失业、突发疾病或住房被可怕的飓风摧毁的风险。我们通过医疗保险、联邦医疗补助计划、社会保障项目向每个人做出承诺，这些不会让我们的创造力衰竭，而是会让我们更强大。这些不会让我们成为充满不劳而获者的国度，这些让我们敢于承担风险，让国家伟大。
We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure – our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.
我们，人民，仍然相信，我们作为美国人的义务不只是对我们自己而言，还包括对子孙后代。我们将应对气候变化的威胁，认识到不采取措施应对气候变化就是对我们的孩子和后代的背叛。一些人可能仍在否定科学界的压倒性判断，但没有人能够避免熊熊火灾、严重旱灾、更强力风暴带来的灾难性打击。通向可再生能源利用的道路是漫长的，有时是困难的。但美国不能抵制这种趋势，我们必须引领这种趋势。我们不能把制造新就业机会和新行业的技术让给其他国家，我们必须明确这一承诺。这是我们保持经济活力和国家财富(我们的森林和航道，我们的农田与雪峰)的方法。这将是我们保护我们星球的办法，上帝把这个星球托付给我们。这将给我们的建国之父们曾宣布的信条赋予意义。
We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage. Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty. The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.
我们，人民，仍然相信持久的安全与和平，不需要持续的战争。我们勇敢的士兵经受了战火的考验，他们的技能和勇气是无可匹敌的。我们的公民依然铭记着那些阵亡者，他们非常清楚我们为自由付出的代价。明白他们的牺牲将让我们永远对那些试图伤害我们的势力保持警惕。但我们也是那些赢得和平而不只是战争的人们的后代，他们将仇敌转变成最可靠的朋友，我们也必须把这些经验带到这个时代。
We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully – not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear. America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe; and we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation. We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom. And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice – not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.
我们将通过强大的军力和法制保护我们的人民，捍卫我们的价值观。我们将展现试图和平解决与其它国家分歧的勇气，但这不是因为我们对面临的危险持幼稚的态度，而是因为接触能够更持久地化解疑虑和恐惧。美国将在全球保持强大的联盟，我们将更新这些能扩展我们应对海外危机能力的机制。因为作为世界上最强大的国家，我们在世界和平方面拥有最大的利益。我们将支持从亚洲到非洲、从美洲至中东的民主国家，因为我们的利益和良心驱使我们代表那些想获得自由的人们采取行动。我们必须成为贫困者、病患者、被边缘化的人士、异见受害者的希望来源，不仅仅是出于慈善，也是因为这个时代的和平需要不断推进我们共同信念中的原则：宽容和机遇，人类尊严与正义。
