奥巴马在开学第一课上的演讲词(中英文对照)(13)

你要记住，哪怕你表现不好、哪怕你失去信心、哪怕你觉得身边的人都已经放弃了你 —— 永远不要自己放弃自己。因为当你放弃自己的时候，你也放弃了自己的国家。

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got

tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

美国不是一个人们遭遇困难就轻易放弃的国度，在这个国家，人们坚持到底、人们加倍努力，为了他们所热爱的国度，每一个人都尽着自己最大的努力，不会给自己留任何余地。

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

250 年前，有一群和你们一样的学生，他们之后奋起努力、用一场革命最终造就了这个国家； 75 年前，有一群和你们一样的学生，他们之后战胜了大萧条、赢得了二 战；就在 20 年前，和你们一样的学生们，他们后来创立了 Google 、 Twitter 和 Facebook ，改变了我们人与人之间沟通的方式。

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be?

What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

因此，今天我想要问你们，你们会做出什么样的贡献？你们将解决什么样的难题？你们能发现什么样的事物？二十、五十或百年之后，假如那时的美国总统也来做一次开学演讲的话，他会怎样描述你们对这个国家所做的一切？

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to

make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment