美国总统乔治华盛顿第一次就职演讲

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 month.On 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。

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 deficiencies.In 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。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 it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage.These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed.
在向公众利益和私人利益的伟大缔造者献上这份崇敬时，我保证这不仅表达了我自己的情感，这些话也同样表达了各位和广大公民的心意。没有人能比美国更坚定不移地承认和崇拜掌管人间事务的上帝。他们在迈向独立国家的进程中，似乎每走一步都有某种天佑的迹象；他们在刚刚完成的联邦政府体制的重大改革中，如果不是因虔诚的感恩而得到某种回报，如果不是谦卑地期待着过去有所预示的赐福的到来，那么，通过众多截然不同的集团的冷静思考和自愿赞同来完成改革，这种方式是不能与大多数政府的组建方式同日而语的。

You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence. By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President, "to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them.
在目前转折关头，我产生这些想法确实是深有所感而不能自已。我相信大家会和我怀有同感，即除了仰仗上帝的力量，一个新生的自由政府别无他法能一开始就事事顺利。根据设立行政部门的条款，总统有责任对你们提出建议。如衡量权宜必要的判断之类的思路。但在目前与各位见面的这个场合，恕我不能进一步讨论这个问题，而只是提一下伟大的宪法，它使各位今天聚集一堂，它规定了各位的权限，提出了各位应该注意的目标。在这样的场合，更恰当、也更能反映我内心激情的做法。不是提出具体措施，而是称颂将要规划和采纳这些措施的当选者的才能、正直和爱国心。

In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so ,on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world.I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted on the hands of the American people.
我从这些高贵品格中看到了最可靠的保证：其一，任何地方偏见或地方感情，任何意见分歧或党派敌视，都不能使我们偏离全局观念和公平观点，即必须维护这个由不同地区和不同利益所组成的大联合；因为，其二，我国政策将会以纯洁而坚定的个人道德原则为基础，而自由政府将会以那赢得民心和全世界尊敬的一切特点而显示其优越性。我对国家的一片热爱之心激励着我满怀喜悦地展望这幅远景，因为根据自然界的构成和发展趋势，在美德与幸福之间，有着密不可分的统一；责任与利益之间，恪守诚实宽厚的政策与获得社会繁荣幸福的硕果之间，因为我们应该同样相信，上帝亲自规定了永恒的秩序和权利法则，它决不可能对无视这些法则的国家仁慈地加以赞许；因为人们理所当然地、满怀觉悟地，也许是最后一次把维护神圣的自由之火和共和制政府的命运，系于美国人所遵命进行的实验上。