英语演讲：奥巴马在罗莎•帕克斯纪念雕像落成典礼讲话

英语自学网

        　　President Obama's Remarks at Dedication of Statue Honoring Rosa Parks
        　　United States Capitol
        　　February 27, 2013
        　　美国总统奥巴马在罗莎•帕克斯纪念雕像落成典礼上的讲话
        　　美国国会山
        　　2013年2月27日
        　　Mr. Speaker, Leader Reid, Leader McConnell, Leader Pelosi, Assistant Leader Clyburn; to the friends and family of Rosa Parks; to the distinguished guests who are gathered here today.
        　　议长先生、(参议院多数党)领袖里德、(参议院少数党)领袖麦康奈尔、(众议院少数党)领袖佩洛西、(众议院少数党)助理领袖克莱伯恩、罗莎•帕克斯的朋友和家人以及今天聚集此地的贵宾们：
        　　This morning, we celebrate a seamstress, slight in stature but mighty in courage. She defied the odds, and she defied injustice. She lived a life of activism, but also a life of dignity and grace. And in a single moment, with the simplest of gestures, she helped change America -- and change the world.
        　　今天早上，我们纪念一位身材瘦小，但勇气巨大的女裁缝。她不畏逆境，反抗不公。她的一生是献身社会行动的一生，同时也是保持尊严与风姿的一生。她在顷刻之间，以最简单的姿态帮助改变了美国——也改变了世界。
        　　Rosa Parks held no elected office. She possessed no fortune; lived her life far from the formal seats of power. And yet today, she takes her rightful place among those who’ve shaped this nation’s course. I thank all those persons, in particular the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, both past and present, for making this moment possible. (Applause.)
        　　罗莎•帕克斯没有担任过民选公职。也不曾拥有财富，她的生活与权位相距甚远。然而今天，她在塑造了美国发展历程的人物中，占据了应有的一席之地。我感谢所有使这一时刻成为可能的人，尤其是国会黑人核心小组——它过去和现在的成员。(掌声)
        　　A childhood friend once said about Mrs. Parks, “Nobody ever bossed Rosa around and got away with it.” (Laughter.) That’s what an Alabama driver learned on December 1, 1955. Twelve years earlier, he had kicked Mrs. Parks off his bus simply because she entered through the front door when the back door was too crowded. He grabbed her sleeve and he pushed her off the bus. It made her mad enough, she would recall, that she avoided riding his bus for a while.
        　　一位儿时的朋友曾这样形容帕克斯夫人：“从来没有人可以对罗莎•帕克斯颐指气使而逍遥无事。”(笑声)这也正是一位阿拉巴马州司机在1955年12月1日所领会的。在那之前12年，他曾将帕克斯夫人赶下他的公交车，原因只是她在后门太拥挤时从前门上车。他抓住她的袖子，将她推下车。她后来回忆说，她如此气愤以致有好一段时间不乘他的车。
        　　And when they met again that winter evening in 1955, Rosa Parks would not be pushed. When the driver got up from his seat to insist that she give up hers, she would not be pushed. When he threatened to have her arrested, she simply replied, “You may do that.” And he did.
        　　当他们于1955年那个冬天的晚上再次相遇时，罗莎•帕克斯是不会任人摆布的。当司机从他的座位上起身，坚持要她让座时，她不为所动。当他威胁要将她逮捕时，她只回答说：“悉听尊便。”司机果真如此行事。
        　　A few days later, Rosa Parks challenged her arrest. A little-known pastor, new to town and only 26 years old, stood with her -- a man named Martin Luther King, Jr. So did thousands of Montgomery, Alabama commuters. They began a boycott -- teachers and laborers, clergy and domestics, through rain and cold and sweltering heat, day after day, week after week, month after month, walking miles if they had to, arranging carpools where they could, not thinking about the blisters on their feet, the weariness after a full day of work -- walking for respect, walking for freedom, driven by a solemn determination to affirm their God-given dignity.
        　　几天后，罗莎•帕克斯对被捕提出异议。一位鲜为人知的牧师——刚到城里不久，只有26岁——挺身支持她，这人就是马丁•路德•金。数千名阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利市乘客也对她表示支持。他们开始联合罢乘——教师和工人、教士和家佣，顶风冒雨，不畏严寒酷暑，日复一日，周复一周，月复一月，如果有必要就步行数里，如果有可能就安排拼车，不顾脚上的水泡，不顾整日劳作后的疲惫——为尊严而步行，为自由而步行，维护他们天赋尊严的庄严决心在鼓励他们向前。
            
            

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        　　Three hundred and eighty-five days after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, the boycott ended. Black men and women and children re-boarded the buses of Montgomery, newly desegregated, and sat in whatever seat happen to be open. (Applause.) And with that victory, the entire edifice of segregation, like the ancient walls of Jericho, began to slowly come tumbling down.
        　　在罗莎•帕克斯拒绝让座385天后，罢乘行动宣告结束。黑人男子、妇女和儿童重新乘坐废除了种族隔离的蒙哥马利市公交车，任意坐任何空座位。(掌声)随着这场胜利，整座种族隔离的大厦，像杰里科的古老城墙一样，开始慢慢地坍塌。
        　　It’s been often remarked that Rosa Parks’s activism didn’t begin on that bus. Long before she made headlines, she had stood up for freedom, stood up for equality -- fighting for voting rights, rallying against discrimination in the criminal justice system, serving in the local chapter of the NAACP. Her quiet leadership would continue long after she became an icon of the civil rights movement, working with Congressman Conyers to find homes for the homeless, preparing disadvantaged youth for a path to success, striving each day to right some wrong somewhere in this world.
        　　人们常说，罗莎•帕克斯的社会行动并非开始于那辆公交车。早在成为新闻人物之前，她就曾为自由、为平等挺身而出——为争取投票权奋斗，为反对刑事司法系统中的歧视呼吁，为全国有色人种协进会的地方分会服务。她那无声的带头作用在她成为民权运动的象征后长久持续——与国会议员科尼尔斯一道为无家可归者寻找住处，帮助弱势青少年踏上成功之路，每天都在为纠正世界某处的某种不公正而奋斗。
        　　And yet our minds fasten on that single moment on the bus -- Ms. Parks alone in that seat, clutching her purse, staring out a window, waiting to be arrested. That moment tells us something about how change happens, or doesn’t happen; the choices we make, or don’t make. “For now we see through a glass, darkly,” Scripture says, and it’s true. Whether out of inertia or selfishness, whether out of fear or a simple lack of moral imagination, we so often spend our lives as if in a fog, accepting injustice, rationalizing inequity, tolerating the intolerable.
        　　然而，我们的记忆凝聚在公交车上的那个时刻——帕克斯女士独自坐在座位上，紧握提包，眼睛凝视窗外，等待被捕。那个时刻向我们显示了改变为什么会发生，或者不会发生;揭示着我们的选择，或是不选择。圣经说：“如今我们对着镜子观看，模糊不清。”这是真的。无论出于惰性还是自私，无论出于恐惧或只是缺乏道德想象力，我们常常像生活在迷雾中，接受不公正、文饰不平等、容忍不可容忍的情形。
        　　Like the bus driver, but also like the passengers on the bus, we see the way things are -- children hungry in a land of plenty, entire neighborhoods ravaged by violence, families hobbled by job loss or illness -- and we make excuses for inaction, and we say to ourselves, that's not my responsibility, there’s nothing I can do.
        　　就像那位公交车司机，但也像公交车上的乘客，我们视一切习以为常——孩子们在鱼米之乡挨饿，整个社区被暴力蹂躏，家庭受累于失业和疾病——我们为无动于衷找借口，对自己说，那不是我的责任，我无能为力。
        　　Rosa Parks tell us there’s always something we can do. She tells us that we all have responsibilities, to ourselves and to one another. She reminds us that this is how change happens -- not mainly through the exploits of the famous and the powerful, but through the countless acts of often anonymous courage and kindness and fellow feeling and responsibility that continually, stubbornly, expand our conception of justice -- our conception of what is possible.
        　　罗莎•帕克斯告诉我们，我们总能有所作为。她告诉我们，我们每个人都有责任，对自己，也对他人。她提醒我们，改变是这样到来的——不是主要靠名人权势的丰功伟绩，而是通过无数往往默默无闻的富于勇气、仁慈、手足情和责任感的行动，这些行动在持续地、不屈不饶地让我们拓宽正义的理念——和我们对可能性的认识。
        　　Rosa Parks’s singular act of disobedience launched a movement. The tired feet of those who walked the dusty roads of Montgomery helped a nation see that to which it had once been blind. It is because of these men and women that I stand here today. It is because of them that our children grow up in a land more free and more fair; a land truer to its founding creed.
        　　罗莎•帕克斯独自一人的抵制行动引发了一场运动。那些在蒙哥马利市尘土飞扬的街道上行走的疲惫脚步，帮助一个国家看清了它曾经视而不见的情景。正是因为这些男女公民，我今天才站在这里。正是因为他们，我们的孩子才能在一片更加自由、更加公平的土地上成长;一片现在更忠实于其创始理念的土地。
        　　And that is why this statue belongs in this hall -- to remind us, no matter how humble or lofty our positions, just what it is that leadership requires; just what it is that citizenship requires. Rosa Parks would have turned 100 years old this month. We do well by placing a statue of her here. But we can do no greater honor to her memory than to carry forward the power of her principle and a courage born of conviction.
        　　而这正是这座雕像屹立于这座大厅的原因——它让我们看到，无论我们的地位如何卑微或高贵，这才是领导作用的内涵;公民责任的内涵。这个月是罗莎•帕克斯诞辰100周年。我们在这里落成她的雕像恰逢其时。但是，将她的原则力量和源自信念的勇气发扬光大才是对她的最好纪念。
        　　May God bless the memory of Rosa Parks, and may God bless these United States of America. (Applause.)
        　　愿上帝保佑对罗莎•帕克斯的怀念，愿上帝保佑美利坚合众国。(掌声)