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Power invariably means both responsibility and danger.
實力永遠意味著責任和危險。
Our forefathers faced certain perils which we have outgrown.
先輩們曾面臨某些我們這個時代不復存在的危險。
We now face other perils, the very existence of which it was impossible that they should foresee.
我們現在面臨的則是其他危險，這些危險的出現是先人所無法預見的。
Modern life is both complex and intense,
現代生活既復雜又緊張，
and the tremendous changes wrought by the extraordinary industrial development of the last half century are felt in every fiber of our social and political being.
我們的社會和政治肌體的每一根纖維，都能感覺到過去半個世紀里工業的異常發展所引起的巨大變化。
Never before have men tried so vast and formidable an experiment as that of administering the affairs of a continent under the forms of a Democratic republic.
人們以前從來沒有嘗試過諸如在民主共和國的形式下管理一個大陸的事務這般龐大而艱巨的實驗。
The conditions which have told for our marvelous material well-being, which have developed to a very high degree our energy,
創造了奇跡般的物質幸福，并將我們的活力、
self-reliance, and individual initiative, have also brought the care and anxiety inseparable from the accumulation of great wealth in industrial centers.
自立能力和個人能動性發展到很高程度的那些條件，也帶來了與工業中心巨大的財富積累不可分開的煩惱與焦慮，
Upon the success of our experiment much depends, not only as regards our own welfare, but as regards the welfare of mankind.
許多事情取決于我們的實驗成功與否，這不僅關系到我們自己的幸福，而且關系到人類的幸福。
If we fail, the cause of free self-government throughout the world will rock to its foundations,
倘若我們失敗了，就會動搖全世界自由的自治政府的事業的基礎，
and therefore our responsibility is heavy, to ourselves, to the world as it is to-day, and to the generations yet unborn.
因此，對于我們自己，對于當今世界，對于尚未出生的后代，我們負有重大責任。
There is no good reason why we should fear the future, but there is every reason why we should face it seriously,
我們沒有什么理由畏懼未來，但是有充分理由認真地面對未來，
neither hiding from ourselves the gravity of the problems before us nor fearing to approach these problems with the unbending,
既不對自己隱瞞擺在面前的問題的嚴重性，也不怕以百折不撓的意志處理這些問題，
unflinching purpose to solve them aright.
正確予以解決。
Yet, after all, though the problems are new, though the tasks set before us differ from the tasks set before our fathers who founded
然而，要知道，雖然這些是新問題，雖然擺在我們面前的任務不同于擺在創建并維護這個共和國的先輩面前的任務，
and preserved this Republic, the spirit in which these tasks must be undertaken and these problems faced,
但是，如果要很好地履行我們的責任，那么，
if our duty is to be well done, remains essentially unchanged.
承擔這些任務和正視這些問題所必須發揚的精神依然根本沒有改變。
We know that self-government is difficult.
我們知道，自治是困難的。
We know that no people needs such high traits of character as that people which
我們知道，我們力求以組成本民族的自由人所自由表達的意愿來正確地管理自己的事務，
seeks to govern its affairs aright through the freely expressed will of the freemen who compose it.
沒有哪一個民族需要像我們所需要的這樣高尚的特性。
But we have faith that we shall not prove false to the memories of the men of the mighty past.
但我們相信，我們會背離先人們在輝煌的過去所創立的事業。
They did their work, they left us the splendid heritage we now enjoy.
他們干了他們的工作，他們為我們留下了我們如今所享受的輝煌的遺產。
We in our turn have an assured confidence that we shall be able to leave this heritage unwasted and enlarged to our children and our children's children.
我們也堅信，我們一定不會浪費這份遺產，而且要進一步充實增加，留給我們的孩子，留給孩子們的后代。
To do so we must show, not merely in great crises, but in the everyday affairs of life,
為此，我們不僅必須在重大危機中，而且要在日常事務中，
the qualities of practical intelligence, of courage, of hardihood, and endurance, and above all the power of devotion to a lofty ideal,
都表現出注重實際的智慧、勇敢、剛毅和忍耐，尤其是獻身于崇高理想的力量等優秀品質，
which made great the men who founded this Republic in the days of Washington, which made great the men who preserved this Republic in the days of Abraham Lincoln.
而這些品質曾使亞伯拉罕·林肯時代維護這個共和國的人們名垂青史。
