奥巴马在911十周年纪念音乐会上的演讲

奥巴马在911十周年纪念音乐会上的演讲

The Bible tells us -- "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

圣经告诉我们“哭泣可能会持续一夜，但欢乐会在明早到来。”

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，美国经历了历史上最黑暗的一天。双子塔楼坍塌了，五角大楼升起了黑烟，飞机在宾夕法尼亚州坠毁。亲朋好友们，兄弟姐妹们，父亲母亲们，孩子们，他们离开了我们，让我们承受着难以弥合的伤痛。在2001年9月12日，我们醒来所面对的世界充满了罪恶和对未知未来的恐惧。

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，美国人经历了许多变故。我们经历了战争和萧条，激烈的争辩和政治分歧。我们永远也不能唤回失去的生命，或是那些在此后战争中英勇捐躯的英烈。

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，我们应该去纪念我们走过的路。我们国家的核心价值依然没有变。我们的信念——相信上帝和彼此的力量——并没有变。我们这个国家坚信，人人自律、人人平等、人人自由，这一信念经受了考验，现在更加坚不可摧。

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.

过去的十年证明，美国并没有畏缩。搜救人员跑进了火场，消防警察冲锋陷阵，飞机乘客跟歹徒搏斗，这些勇士证明了美国人的勇敢。在之后的十年中，我们看到了美国英雄主义的另一种表现形式：云梯消防队依然有勇敢的队员在拯救人们生命，工商企业开始重建，灾难幸存者重新振作起来，遇难者家属开始了新的生活。

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女士的来信。她在双子塔楼的灾难中失去了丈夫和兄弟，她说“那么多骄傲的瞬间从她的生命里被剥夺了，父亲原本可以看到孩子毕业、在曲棍球比赛中得分、在考试中获得好成绩。”这位女士还有两个在上大学的女儿，以及一个在念高中的孩子。她在信中写道：“十年来，我一个人养育我的女儿们。她们的坚强和勇敢让我骄傲无比。”这一家人的精神就是全部美国家庭的写照。这些女孩用充满希望的未来给了杀害她们父亲的凶手最有力的回击。

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.

这整整十年证明了美国保护公民、维护美国生活方式的决心。外交官远离故土辛勤工作、情报人员默默无闻无私奉献。在9·11后，二百万美国人参与了战争。他们证明，那些伤害了我们的人绝对无法逃脱正义的审判，不论他们藏身何处。事实上，那些保卫国家的人不是征召的士兵，而是自愿服役的公民——他们是毕业入伍的年轻人，国民警卫队士兵和后备役，工人和商业人士，移民和第四代士兵。他们放弃舒适的生活，甚至坚持超期服役。他们中的很多人从此再也没有回来。而即便是平安回来的人也从此留下了难以治愈的心灵创伤和战友逝去的记