乔治华盛顿就职演讲
-
乔治
·
华盛顿，美国开国总统，由于他扮演了美
国独立战争和建国中最重要的角色，华盛顿
通常被称为美国国父。学者们则将他和亚伯拉
罕
·
林肯并列为美国历史上最伟大的总统。
Nothing
filled
me
with
greater
anxieties
than
that
of
which
the
notification
was
transmitted
by
your order, and received
on the 14th day of the present the one hand, I
was summoned
by my country, whose voice
I can never hear but with veneration and love,
from a retreat which I
had chosen with
the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering
hopes, with an immutable decision,
as
the asylum of my declining years a retreat which
was rendered every day more necessary as
well as more dear to me by the addition
of habit to inclination, and of frequent
interruptions in my
health to the
gradual waste committed on it by time.
在人生沉浮中，没有一件事能比你们于本月
14
日送达的通知更
使我焦虑不安。一方面，国
家召唤我出任此职，
对于她的召唤，
我永远只能肃然敬从；而隐退是我以挚爱心情、满腔希
望和坚定
的决心选择的暮年归宿，
由于爱好和习惯，
时感体力不济，
愈觉隐退之必要和可贵。
且时光流逝，健康渐衰。
< br>
On
the
other
hand,
the
magnitude
and
difficulty
of
the
trust
to
which
the
voice
of
my
country
called
me,
being
sufficient
to
awaken
in
the
wisest
and
most
experienced
of
her
citizens
a
distrustful
scrutiny
into
his
qualifications,
could
not
but
overwhelm
with
despondence
one
who
(inheriting inferior endowments from
nature, and unpracticed in the duties of civil
administration)
ought to be peculiarly
conscious of his own this conflict of emotions
all I dare aver
is
that
it
has
been
my
faithful
study
to
collect,
my
duty
from
a
just
appreciation
of
every
circumstance by which it might be
affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing
this task, I have
been
too
much
swayed
by
a
grateful
remembrance
of
former
instances,
or
by
an
affectionate
sensibility to
this transcendent proof of the confidence of my
fellow citizens, and have thence too
little consulted my incapacity as well
as disinclination for the weighty and untried
cares before me,
my error will be
palliated by the motives which mislead me,and its
consequences be judged by my
country
with some share of the partiality in which they
originated.
另一方面，
国家召唤我担负的责任如
此重大和艰巨，
足以使国内最有才智和经验的人度德量
力；而我
天资愚钝，
又无民政管理的实践，理应倍觉自己能力之不足，
因
而必然感到难以肩
此重任。
怀着这种矛盾心情，
我唯一敢断言的是，
通过正确估计可能产生影响的各种情况来
< br>克尽吾职，
乃是我忠贞不渝的努力目标。
我唯一敢祈望的
是，
如果我在执行这项任务时因陶
醉于往事。
< br>或因由衷感激公民们对我的高度信赖，
因而受到过多影响，
以致在处理从未经历
过的大事时，
忽视了自己的无能和消极。
我的错误将会由于使我误人歧途的各种动机而减轻，
而大家在评
判错误的后果时，也会适当包涵产生这些动机的偏见。
Such being the impressions under which
I have, in obedience to the public summons,
repaired to
the
present
station,
it
would
be
peculiarly
improper
to
omit
in
this
first
official
act
my
fervent
supplications to
that Almighty Being who rules over the universe,
who presides in the councils of
nations,
and
whose
providential
aids
supply
every
human
defect,
that
His
benediction
may
consecrate
to
the
liberties
and
happiness
of
the
people
of
the
United
States
a
Government
instituted by
themselves for these essential purposes, and may
enable every instrument employed
in its
administration to execute with success the
functions allotted to his charge.
既然这就是
我在遵奉公众召唤就任现职时的感想，
那么，
在此宣誓就职之际
，
如不热忱地祈
求全能的上帝就极其失当。
因为上帝统治着宇宙，
主宰着各国政府，
它的神助能弥补人
类的
任何不足。
愿上帝赐福，
保佑一个
为美国人民的自由和幸福而组成的政府，
保佑它为这些基
本目标
而做出奉献。保佑政府的各项行政措施在我负责之下都能成功地发挥作用。
In tendering this homage to the Great
Author of every public and private good, I assure
myself that