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Unit 10 Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
第十單元 重拾美國夢
Barack Obama
貝拉克·奧巴馬
We hold theses truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
“我們認為下述真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，造物主賦予他們若干不可讓與的權利，其中包括生存權、自由權和追求幸福的權利。”
Those simple words are our starting point as Americans; they describe not only the foundation of our government but the substance of our common creed. Not every American may be able to recite them; few, if asked, could trace the genesis of the Declaration of Independence to its roots in eighteenth-century liberal and republican thought. But the essential idea behind the Declaration-that we are born into this world free, all of us; that each of us arrives with a bundle of rights that can't be taken away by any person or any state without just cause; that through our own agency we can, and must, make of our lives what we will-is one that every American understands. It orients us, sets our course, each and every day.
這些簡單的話語便是理解美國人的開端，不但表達了我國政府的根基，也表達了我們共同信條的實質。并不是每個美國人都能復述這句話；如果問及的話，很少有人能夠將《獨立宣言》的創立追溯到作為其根源的18世紀自由與共和思想。但是《獨立宣言》隱含的基本思想我們生來自由，所有的人；我們每個人生來具有許多權利，若沒有正當理由，任何人任何國家不能剝奪；我們通過自己的積極努力可以也一定能過上我們想要的生活一每個美國人都知道。這個思想日復一日地給我們指引方向、確定路線。
Indeed, the value of individual freedom is so deeply ingrained in us that we tend to take it for granted. It is easy to forget that at the time of our nation's founding this idea was entirely radical in its implications, as radical as Martin Luther's posting on the church door. It is an idea that some portion of the world still rejects-and for which an even larger portion of humanity finds scant evidence in their daily lives.
的確，個體自由的價值觀在我們心里根深蒂固，以至于我們往往認為它是天經地義的。我們很容易忘記國家建立之初這一觀念的含義全然是激進的，不亞于馬丁·路德教堂門上張貼事件。這種觀念在一些國家仍舊遭受排斥一這些國家的日常生活中連人道都很難找到。
In fact, much of my appreciation of our Bill of Rights comes from having spent part of my childhood in Indonesia and from still having family in Kenya, countries where individual rights are almost entirely subject to the self-restraint of army generals or the whims of corrupt bureaucrats. I remember the first time I took Michelle to Kenya, shortly before we were married. As an African American, Michelle was bursting with excitement about the idea of visiting the continent of her ancestors, and we had a wonderful time, visiting my grandmother up-country, wandering through the streets of Nairobi, camping in the Serengeti, fishing off the island of Lamu.
事實上，我對《人權法案》的很多體會來自在印度尼西亞度過的部分童年，還有來自我的宗族肯尼亞。在這些國家，個人的權利幾乎完全取決于軍隊統帥的自制，或者腐敗官僚們一時的興致。我記得我第一次帶米歇爾去肯尼亞，是在我們準備結婚之前。作為一個非裔美國人米歇爾對拜訪她先輩的大陸滿懷興奮；我們度過了美好的時光，拜訪住在內陸的祖母，漫步內羅畢的街道，在塞倫蓋蒂草原上宿營，在拉穆島附近垂釣。
But during our travels Michelle also heard-as had heard during my first trip to Africa-the terrible sense on the part of most Kenyans that their fates were not their own.
但是旅途中米歇爾也聽說—正如我第一次非洲之行聽到的那樣大多數肯尼亞人具有一種恐懼感：他們的命運不在自己的手中。
