篇一：奧巴馬開學演講英漢互譯

　　Remarks by the President

　　總統致辭

　　In a national address to America’s schoolchildren 致美國學生的全國演講 Wakefield High school韋克菲爾德高中

　　Arlington, Virginia 阿林頓市，弗吉尼亞州

　　Hello, everybody! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. All right, everybody go ahead and have a seat. How is everybody doing today(Applause.) How about Tim Spicer(Applause.) I am here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, from kindergarten through 12th grade. And I am just so glad that all could join us today. And I want to thank Wakefield for being such an outstanding host. Give yourselves a big round of applause. (Applause.)

　　大家好！謝謝你們。謝謝你們。謝謝你們大家。好，大家請就坐。你們今天都好嗎？（掌聲）蒂姆斯派塞（Tim Spicer）好嗎？（掌聲）我現在與弗吉尼亞州阿靈頓郡韋克菲爾德高中的學生們在一起。美國各地從小學預備班到中學12年級的學生正在收聽收看。我很高興大家今天都能參與。我還要感謝韋克菲爾德高中出色的組織安排。請為你們自己熱烈鼓掌。（掌聲）

　　I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now -- (applause) -- with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little bit longer this morning.

　　我知道，今天是你們很多人開學的日子。對于進入小學預備班、初中或高中的學生，今天是你們來到新學校的第一天，心里可能有點緊張，這是可以理解的。我能想象有些畢業班學生現在感覺很不錯——（掌聲）——還有一年就畢業了。不論在哪個年級，你們有些人可能希望暑假更長一點，今天早上還能多睡一小會兒。 I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived overseas. I lived in Indonesia for a few years. And my mother, she didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school, but she thought it was important for me to keep up with an American education. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday. But because she had to go to work, the only time she could do it was at 4:30 in the morning.

　　我了解這種感覺。我小時候，我們家生活在海外。我在印度尼西亞住了幾年。我媽媽沒有錢送我上其他美國孩子上的學校，但她認為必須讓我接受美式教育。因此，她決定從周一到周五自己給我補課。不過她還要上班，所以只能在清晨四點半給我上課。

　　Now, as you might imagine, I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. And a lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and she’d say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.” (Laughter.)

　　你們可以想見，我不太情愿那么早起床。有很多次，我趴在餐桌上就睡著了。但每當我抱怨的時候，我媽媽都會那樣地看我一眼，然后說：“小子，這對我也并不輕松。”（笑聲）

　　So I know that some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

　　我知道你們有些人還在適應開學后的生活。但我今天來到這里是因為有重要的事情要和你們說。我來這里是要和你們談談你們的教育問題，以及在這個新學年對你們所有人的期望。

　　Now, I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked about responsibility a lot.

　　我做過很多次有關教育問題的演講。我多次談到過責任問題。

　　I’ve talked about teachers’ responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to learn.

　　我談到過教師激勵學生并督促他們學習的責任。

　　I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and you get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with the Xbox.

　　我談到過家長的責任，要確保你們走正路，完成家庭作業，不要整天坐在電視前或玩Xbox游戲。

　　I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, and supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working, where students aren’t getting the opportunities that they deserve.

　　我多次談到過政府的責任，要制定高標準，支持教師和校長的工作，徹底改善不能為學生提供應有機會的、教育質量差的學校。

　　But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world -- and none of it will make a difference, none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. That’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education.

　　然而，即使我們擁有最敬業的教師，最盡力的家長和全世界最好的學校——如果你們大家不履行你們的責任，不到校上課，不專心聽講，不聽家長、祖父祖母和其他大人的話，不付出取得成功所必須的勤奮努力，那么這一切都毫無用處，都無關緊要。這就是我今天講話的重點：你們每個人對自己的教育應盡的責任。 I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. Every single one of you has something that you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

　　我首先要講講你們對自己應盡的責任。你們每個人都有自己的長處。你們每個人都能做出自己的貢獻。你們對自己應盡的責任是發現自己的能力所在。而教育能夠提供這樣的機會。

　　Maybe you could be a great writer -- maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper -- but you might not know it until you write that English paper -- that English class paper that’s assigned to you. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor -- maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or the new medicine or vaccine -- but you might not know it until you do your project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice -- but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team. 你或許能成為一名出色的作家——甚至可能寫書或在報紙上發表文章——但你可能要在完成那篇英文課的作文后才會發現自己的才華。你或許能成為一名創新者或發明家——甚至可能設計出新一代iPhone或研制出新型藥物或疫苗——但你可能要在完成科學課的實驗后才會發現自己的才華。你或許能成為一名市長或參議員或最高法院的大法官——但你可能要在參加學生會的工作或辯論隊后才會發現自己的才華。

　　And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officerYou want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our militaryYou’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to train for it and work for it and learn for it.

　　不論你的生活志向是什么，我敢肯定你必須上學讀書才能實現它。你想當醫生、教師或警官嗎？你想當護士、建筑師、律師或軍人嗎？你必須接受良好的教育，才能從事上述任何一種職業。你不能指望輟學后能碰上個好工作。你必須接受培訓，為之努力，為之學習。

　　And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. The future of America depends on you. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

　　這并非只對你個人的人生和未來意義重大。可以毫不夸大地說，教育給你帶來的益處將決定這個國家的未來。美國的未來取決于你們。你們今日在校學習的知識將決定我們作為一個國家是否能夠迎接我們未來所面臨的最嚴峻挑戰。

　　You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical-thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

　　你們將需要利用你們通過自然科學和數學課程所學到的知識和解決問題的能力來治愈癌癥、艾滋病及其他疾病，開發新的能源技術和保護我們的環境。你們將需要利用你們在歷史學和社會學課堂上所獲得的知識和獨立思考能力來抗擊貧困和解決無家可歸問題，打擊犯罪和消除歧視，使我們的國家更公平、更自由。你們將需要利用你們在所有課堂上培養的創造力和智慧來創辦新公司，增加就業機會，振興我們的經濟。

　　We need every single one of you to develop your talents and your skills and your intellect so you can help us old folks solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that -- if you quit on school -- you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

　　我們需要你們每個人發揮你們的聰明才智和技能，以便幫助老一輩人解決我們面臨的最棘手問題。如果你們不這樣做，如果你們輟學，你們不僅僅是自暴自棄，也是拋棄自己的國家。

　　Now, I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork. 我自然知道要做到學業優秀并非總是易事。我知道你們許多人在生活中面臨挑戰，難以集中精力從事學業。

　　I get it. I know what it’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mom who had to work and who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us the things that other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and I felt like I didn’t fit in.

　　我明白這一點。 我有親身感受。兩歲時，我父親離家而去，我是由一位單親母親撫養成人的，母親不得不工作，并時常為支付生活費用而苦苦掙扎，但有時仍無法為我們提供其他孩子享有的東西。有時，我渴望生活中能有一位父親。有時我感到孤獨，感到自己不適應社會。

　　So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been on school, and I did some things I’m not proud of, and I got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

　　我并非總是像我應該做到的那樣專心學習，我也曾做過我如今不能引以為豪的一些事情，我曾惹過不應該惹的麻煩。我的人生原本會輕易陷入更糟糕的境地。 But I was -- I was lucky. I got a lot of second chances, and I had the opportunity to go to college and law school and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, she has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have a lot of money. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

　　但是，我當年際遇不錯。我有過許多第二次機會，我有幸能上大學，上法學院，追求自己的理想。我的妻子，我們的第一夫人米歇爾奧巴馬，也有著類似的經歷。她的父母都未曾上過大學，家里很窮。但他們非常勤奮 ，她也是如此，因此她得以進入一些美國最好的學校。

　　Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

　　你們中有一些人可能沒有那些有利條件。或許你們生活中沒有成年人為你們提供你們所需要的支持。或許你們家中有人失業，經濟非常拮據。或許你們生活在使你們感覺不安全的社區，或有朋友逼迫你們去做你們知道不對的事情。

　　But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life -- what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home -- none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. There is no excuse for not trying.

　　然而說到底，你們生活的環境、你們的膚色、你們的原籍、你們的經濟收入、你們家中的境況等等，這一切都不能成為你們不用功或不努力的理由。你們沒有理由不服從你們的老師、逃學、或輟學。沒有理由不付出努力。

　　Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you, because here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

　　你們目前的狀況并不決定著你們的未來。沒有人決定你們的命運，在美國，你們決定自己的命運。你們掌握自己的未來。

　　That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America. 這就是像你們這樣的年輕人每天都在做的事情，全美各地都是如此。

　　Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Neither of her parents had gone to college. But she worked hard, earned good grades, and got a scholarship to Brown University -- is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to becoming Dr. Jazmin Perez. 來自得州羅馬城的賈茲敏佩雷斯（Jazmin Perez）就是一個例證，她剛開始上學時并不會說英文。她的父母都沒有上過大學。然而，她非常勤奮，成績優秀，獲得了布朗大學的獎學金，她如今正在讀研究生，攻讀公共衛生專業，不久將成為賈茲敏佩雷斯博士。

　　I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s had to endure all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer -- hundreds of extra hours -- to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind. He’s headed to college this fall.

　　我想起了加州洛斯阿爾托斯城的安多尼舒爾茨（Andoni Schultz），他從三歲開始就一直與腦癌進行抗爭，他不得不忍受各類治療和手術帶來的痛苦，其中一項手術曾影響了他的記憶，因此他花在功課上的時間比一般人長得多，要多出數百個小時。然而，他從未落后。他今年秋季將邁進大學。

　　And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods in the city,