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Unit 10 Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
第十单元 重拾美国梦
Barack Obama
贝拉克·奥巴马
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.
“我们认为下述真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，造物主赋予他们若干不可让与的权利，其中包括生存权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。”
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.
这些简单的话语便是理解美国人的开端，不但表达了我国政府的根基，也表达了我们共同信条的实质。并不是每个美国人都能复述这句话；如果问及的话，很少有人能够将《独立宣言》的创立追溯到作为其根源的18世纪自由与共和思想。但是《独立宣言》隐含的基本思想我们生来自由，所有的人；我们每个人生来具有许多权利，若没有正当理由，任何人任何国家不能剥夺；我们通过自己的积极努力可以也一定能过上我们想要的生活一每个美国人都知道。这个思想日复一日地给我们指引方向、确定路线。
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.
的确，个体自由的价值观在我们心里根深蒂固，以至于我们往往认为它是天经地义的。我们很容易忘记国家建立之初这一观念的含义全然是激进的，不亚于马丁·路德教堂门上张贴事件。这种观念在一些国家仍旧遭受排斥一这些国家的日常生活中连人道都很难找到。
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.
事实上，我对《人权法案》的很多体会来自在印度尼西亚度过的部分童年，还有来自我的宗族肯尼亚。在这些国家，个人的权利几乎完全取决于军队统帅的自制，或者腐败官僚们一时的兴致。我记得我第一次带米歇尔去肯尼亚，是在我们准备结婚之前。作为一个非裔美国人米歇尔对拜访她先辈的大陆满怀兴奋；我们度过了美好的时光，拜访住在内陆的祖母，漫步内罗毕的街道，在塞伦盖蒂草原上宿营，在拉穆岛附近垂钓。
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.
但是旅途中米歇尔也听说—正如我第一次非洲之行听到的那样大多数肯尼亚人具有一种恐惧感：他们的命运不在自己的手中。
