美國時間2011年9月11日晚,美國總統(tǒng)奧巴馬在華盛頓肯尼迪中心舉行的“9·11”紀(jì)念音樂會上發(fā)表講話,意在使美國民眾在遭受9·11恐怖襲擊十年后重新燃起對美國價值觀念的信心。
奧巴馬的演講全文摘錄如下:
The Bible tells us -- "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
圣經(jīng)告訴我們“哭泣可能會持續(xù)一夜,但歡樂會在明早到來。”
Ten years ago, America confronted one of our darkest nights. Mighty towers crumbled. Black smoke billowed up from the Pentagon. Airplane wreckage smoldered on a Pennsylvania field. Friends and neighbors, sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters -- they were taken from us with a heartbreaking swiftness and cruelty. And on September 12, 2001, we awoke to a world in which evil was closer at hand, and uncertainty clouded our future.
十年前,美國經(jīng)歷了歷史上最黑暗的一天。雙子塔樓坍塌了,五角大樓升起了黑煙,飛機(jī)在賓夕法尼亞州墜毀。親朋好友們,兄弟姐妹們,父親母親們,孩子們,他們離開了我們,讓我們承受著難以彌合的傷痛。在2001年9月12日,我們醒來所面對的世界充滿了罪惡和對未知未來的恐懼。
In the decade since, much has changed for Americans. We've known war and recession, passionate debates and political divides. We can never get back the lives that were lost on that day or the Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice in the wars that followed.
在此之后的十年里,美國人經(jīng)歷了許多變故。我們經(jīng)歷了戰(zhàn)爭和蕭條,激烈的爭辯和政治分歧。我們永遠(yuǎn)也不能喚回失去的生命,或是那些在此后戰(zhàn)爭中英勇捐軀的英烈。
And yet today, it is worth remembering what has not changed. Our character as a nation has not changed. Our faith -- in God and in each other -- that has not changed. Our belief in America, born of a timeless ideal that men and women should govern themselves; that all people are created equal, and deserve the same freedom to determine their own destiny -- that belief, through tests and trials, has only been strengthened.
但是,在今天,我們應(yīng)該去紀(jì)念我們走過的路。我們國家的核心價值依然沒有變。我們的信念——相信上帝和彼此的力量——并沒有變。我們這個國家堅信,人人自律、人人平等、人人自由,這一信念經(jīng)受了考驗,現(xiàn)在更加堅不可摧。
These past 10 years have shown that America does not give in to fear. The rescue workers who rushed to the scene, the firefighters who charged up the stairs, the passengers who stormed the cockpit -- these patriots defined the very nature of courage. Over the years we've also seen a more quiet form of heroism -- in the ladder company that lost so many men and still suits up and saves lives every day, the businesses that have been rebuilt from nothing, the burn victim who has bounced back, the families who press on.
過去的十年證明,美國并沒有畏縮。搜救人員跑進(jìn)了火場,消防警察沖鋒陷陣,飛機(jī)乘客跟歹徒搏斗,這些勇士證明了美國人的勇敢。在之后的十年中,我們看到了美國英雄主義的另一種表現(xiàn)形式:云梯消防隊依然有勇敢的隊員在拯救人們生命,工商企業(yè)開始重建,災(zāi)難幸存者重新振作起來,遇難者家屬開始了新的生活。
Last spring, I received a letter from a woman named Suzanne Swaine. She had lost her husband and brother in the Twin Towers, and said that she had been robbed of, "so many would-be proud moments where a father watches their child graduate, or tend a goal in a lacrosse game, or succeed academically." But her daughters are in college, the other doing well in high school. "It has been 10 years of raising these girls on my own," Suzanne wrote. "I could not be prouder of their strength and resilience." That spirit typifies our American family. And the hopeful future for those girls is the ultimate rebuke to the hateful killers who took the life of their father.
去年春天,我收到了一位叫Suzanne Swaine女士的來信。她在雙子塔樓的災(zāi)難中失去了丈夫和兄弟,她說“那么多驕傲的瞬間從她的生命里被剝奪了,父親原本可以看到孩子畢業(yè)、在曲棍球比賽中得分、在考試中獲得好成績。”這位女士還有兩個在上大學(xué)的女兒,以及一個在念高中的孩子。她在信中寫道:“十年來,我一個人養(yǎng)育我的女兒們。她們的堅強(qiáng)和勇敢讓我驕傲無比。”這一家人的精神就是全部美國家庭的寫照。這些女孩用充滿希望的未來給了殺害她們父親的兇手最有力的回?fù)簟?/p>
These past 10 years have shown America's resolve to defend its citizens, and our way of life. Diplomats serve in far off posts, and intelligence professionals work tirelessly without recognition. Two million Americans have gone to war since 9/11. They have demonstrated that those who do us harm cannot hide from the reach of justice, anywhere in the world. America has been defended not by conscripts, but by citizens who choose to serve -- young people who signed up straight out of high school, guardsmen and reservists, workers and business-people, immigrants and fourth-generation soldiers. They are men and women who left behind lives of comfort for two, three, four, five tours of duty. Too many will never come home. Those that do carry dark memories from distant places and the legacy of fallen friends.
這整整十年證明了美國保護(hù)公民、維護(hù)美國生活方式的決心。外交官遠(yuǎn)離故土辛勤工作、情報人員默默無聞無私奉獻(xiàn)。在9·11后,二百萬美國人參與了戰(zhàn)爭。他們證明,那些傷害了我們的人絕對無法逃脫正義的審判,不論他們藏身何處。事實上,那些保衛(wèi)國家的人不是征召的士兵,而是自愿服役的公民——他們是畢業(yè)入伍的年輕人,國民警衛(wèi)隊士兵和后備役,工人和商業(yè)人士,移民和第四代士兵。他們放棄舒適的生活,甚至堅持超期服役。他們中的很多人從此再也沒有回來。而即便是平安回來的人也從此留下了難以治愈的心靈創(chuàng)傷和戰(zhàn)友逝去的記憶。