林登·约翰逊总统 伟大社会演讲

1964年5月22日，美国总统林登·约翰逊在密歇根大学发表了本篇演讲，他在本篇演讲中提出了“伟大社会”的福利国家构想，他宣布政府将推动国家加速城市化、保护自然环境、发展义务教育，并实现人人平等。“伟大社会”是林登·约翰逊总统任期内最显著的功绩之一。

注：本人仅为翻译，演讲内容不代表本人立场，仅供学习英语使用，由于演讲的背景为冷战时期，所以可能有较强的意识形态冲突，也请大家慎重看待演讲内容，切勿全信。

President Hatcher, Governor Romney, Senators McNamara and Hart, Congressmen Meader and Staebler, and other members of the fine Michigan delegation, members of the graduating class, my fellow Americans:

哈彻校长，罗姆尼州长，麦克纳马拉参议员，哈特参议员，米德众议员，斯特布勒众议员，密歇根代表团的其他出色成员，毕业班的各位同学，我的美国同胞们：

It is a great pleasure to be here today. This university has been coeducational since 1870, but I do not believe it was on the basis of your accomplishments that a Detroit high school girl said, "In choosing a college, you first have to decide whether you want a coeducational school or an educational school."

今天，我很荣幸来到贵校。自1870年开始，这座大学就开始实施男女同校，我听到一位底特律女中学说，“选择大学时，最重要的就是先想好，你是想要男女同校大学，还是普通大学。”但是我并不觉得，贵校的一切成就都归功于男女同校制度。

Well, we can find both here at Michigan, although perhaps at different hours.

而密歇根大学二者兼具，只是二者不会同时出现而已。

I came out here today very anxious to meet the Michigan student whose father told a friend of mine that his son's education had been a real value. It stopped his mother from bragging about him.

我今天来此，特别想要见到一位密歇根大学的学生，他的父亲跟我的朋友说，教育改变了这孩子的一生。他的母亲再也不会瞎吹牛了。

I have come today from the turmoil of your Capital to the tranquility of your campus to speak about the future of your country.

今天，我从嘈杂的首都来到这所安静的大学，同大家探讨我们国家的未来。

The purpose of protecting the life of our Nation and preserving the liberty of our citizens is to pursue the happiness of our people. Our success in that pursuit is the test of our success as a Nation.

我们之所以保障国家安全，捍卫人民自由，都是为了让我国人民能够幸福生活。我们是否是一个成功的国家，就看我们有没有让人民幸福生活。

For a century we labored to settle and to subdue a continent. For half a century we called upon unbounded invention and untiring industry to create an order of plenty for all of our people.

我们花了一个世纪的时间来探索开发这片大陆。之后的半个世纪里，我们的科技日新月异，工业蓬勃发展，为全体美国人民创造了无尽财富。

The challenge of the next half century is whether we have the wisdom to use that wealth to enrich and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of our American civilization.

再之后的半个世纪里，我们迎来了考验，看我们能否妥善运用这笔财富，改善我们的国民生活，推动美利坚文明继续前进。

Your imagination, your initiative, and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs, or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. For in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.

你们的无限想象，你们的积极主动，你们的激情澎湃，都将决定我们是能建成一个进步服务于需求的社会，还是让野蛮生长埋没我们古老价值观和新视野的社会。因为在你们这个时代，我们有机会让社会发展，不仅是发展为一个富裕社会、强大社会，而且还是一个伟大社会。

The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning.

伟大社会建立在全体人民富足自由的基础之上。伟大社会要消灭贫困和种族歧视，吾辈要为这两大目标全力以赴。但这才只是开始。

The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. It is a place where leisure is a welcome chance to build and reflect, not a feared cause of boredom and restlessness. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community.

在伟大社会中，所有孩子都能以知识丰富自己的头脑，施展自己的才能。在伟大社会，休息时间是大家喜闻乐见的锻炼思考时间，而非人人喊打的乏闷不安之源。在伟大社会，城市不仅能够满足人类的生理需求和贸易需求，而且还能让人在其中发现美好，发现志同道合之人。

It is a place where man can renew contact with nature. It is a place which honors creation for its own sake and for what it adds to the understanding of the race. It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods.

在伟大社会中，人与自然能够再次和谐共生。在伟大社会，我们鼓励开辟创新，因为创新本身就能够促进种族和解。在伟大社会，人们将更加关注自己的梦想目标，而非现实物质需求。

But most of all, the Great Society is not a safe harbor, a resting place, a final objective, a finished work. It is a challenge constantly renewed, beckoning us toward a destiny where the meaning of our lives matches the marvelous products of our labor.

最重要的是，伟大社会不是避风港，不是休息间，不是我们的最终目标，亦非可以完成的任务。伟大社会是一个不断更新的挑战，它会号召我们前往命运所指引的方向，让我们的生命价值能够同我们双手创造的奇迹一样伟大。

So I want to talk to you today about three places where we begin to build the Great Society—in our cities, in our countryside, and in our classrooms.

所以，今天我想同大家谈论，我们该从哪三个地方开始建造伟大社会——城市、乡村和教室。

Many of you will live to see the day, perhaps 50 years from now, when there will be 400 million Americans four-fifths of them in urban areas. In the remainder of this century urban population will double, city land will double, and we will have to build homes, highways, and facilities equal to all those built since this country was first settled. So in the next 40 years we must rebuild the entire urban United States.

未来大家能在有生之年看到，大约50年后，4亿美国人中有80%都生活在城市。在本世纪剩下的时间里，我们的城市人口将会翻倍，城市面积也会翻倍，我们新建的住房、公路和设施，就相当于过去200年前的总和。所以，未来40年，我们会重建美国所有城市。

Aristotle said: "Men come together in cities in order to live, but they remain together in order to live the good life." It is harder and harder to live the good life in American cities today.

亚里士多德曾说过：“人聚集是为生存，人齐心是为生活。”而现在，想在美国城市里过上幸福生活愈加困难。

The catalog of ills is long: there is the decay of the centers and the despoiling of the suburbs. There is not enough housing for our people or transportation for our traffic. Open land is vanishing and old landmarks are violated.

城市弊病已经数不胜数：市中心陈旧不已，郊区破败不堪。我们的人民没有足够的住房，也没有足够的交通工具。空旷地正在消失，地标建筑屡遭破坏。

Worst of all expansion is eroding the precious and time honored values of community with neighbors and communion with nature. The loss of these values breeds loneliness and boredom and indifference.

这一切弊病中，最糟糕的是，它正在侵蚀我国社区和谐、友好睦邻、自然共生的宝贵价值观。如果我们失去了这些价值观，我们就会变得孤僻、乏味、冷漠。

Our society will never be great until our cities are great. Today the frontier of imagination and innovation is inside those cities and not beyond their borders.

如果我们想要建成伟大社会，就要先建成伟大的城市。今天，想象和创新的边疆就在这些城市之中，而非其外。

New experiments are already going on. It will be the task of your generation to make the American city a place where future generations will come, not only to live but to live the good life.

我们开启了新的实验。你们这一代美国人的任务，就是打造美国城市，让其成为我们下一代可以幸福生活的乐土，而非仅仅足以苟活的荒地。

I understand that if I stayed here tonight I would see that Michigan students are really doing their best to live the good life.

我明白，如果我今晚留下过夜，那么我一定会见到密西根大学的学生为幸福生活而拼搏。

This is the place where the Peace Corps was started. It is inspiring to see how all of you, while you are in this country, are trying so hard to live at the level of the people.

这座大学是美国和平队的创始地。看到大家努力融入美国人民的生活，实在令人感到欢欣。

A second place where we begin to build the Great Society is in our countryside. We have always prided ourselves on being not only America the strong and America the free, but America the beautiful. Today that beauty is in danger. The water we drink, the food we eat, the very air that we breathe, are threatened with pollution. Our parks are overcrowded, our seashores overburdened. Green fields and dense forests are disappearing.

我们打造伟大社会的第二个地点就是乡村。我们一直为身为美国人而感到十分自豪，不仅仅因为我们生活在强大的美国，自由的美国，更因为我们生活在美丽的美国。而现在美丽可能不再。我们喝的水，吃的食物，甚至呼吸的空气都受到了污染。我们的公园拥挤不开，我们的沿海地区人口过载。绿洲和森林正在消失。

A few years ago we were greatly concerned about the "Ugly American." Today we must act to prevent an ugly America.

几年前，《丑陋的美国人》一书引起了我们的深深担忧。今天，我们必须采取行动，防止“丑陋”成为美国的标签。

For once the battle is lost, once our natural splendor is destroyed, it can never be recaptured. And once man can no longer walk with beauty or wonder at nature his spirit will wither and his sustenance be wasted.

因为，如果我们输掉了这场环境保卫战，我们的自然美景就将消失，且一去不复返。如果人再在美丽的大自然中漫步，那么人的精神就会萎缩，再也无法汲取到营养。

A third place to build the Great Society is in the classrooms of America. There your children's lives will be shaped. Our society will not be great until every young mind is set free to scan the farthest reaches of thought and imagination. We are still far from that goal.

要打造伟大社会，第三个地方就是在美国的教室内。这里将塑造你们孩子的生活。只有解放了年轻一代的头脑，让他们能最大程度地发挥想象，我们的社会才能伟大。此目标任重道远。

Today, 8 million adult Americans, more than the entire population of Michigan, have not finished 5 years of school. Nearly 20 million have not finished 8 years of school. Nearly 54 million—more than one-quarter of all America—have not even finished high school.

今天，有800万美国成年人都没有完成小学学业，这一数量比整个密歇根州的人口都要多。将近2000万美国人没有完成初中学业。将近5400万美国人没有完成高中学业——这一数字已经超过了我国总人口的25%。

Each year more than 100,000 high school graduates, with proved ability, do not enter college because they cannot afford it. And if we cannot educate today's youth, what will we do in 1970 when elementary school enrollment will be 5 million greater than 1960? And high school enrollment will rise by 5 million. College enrollment will increase by more than 3 million.

现在，每年有10万名学生高中毕业，他们能力出色，却因为学费问题上不了大学。我们连现在的青年都无法教育好，那么等到1970年，小学学生的数量比1960年再多500万时，我们该怎么办？届时中学生数量也会增加500万。大学生数量将增加300多万。

In many places, classrooms are overcrowded and curricula are outdated. Most of our qualified teachers are underpaid, and many of our paid teachers are unqualified. So we must give every child a place to sit and a teacher to learn from. Poverty must not be a bar to learning, and learning must offer an escape from poverty.

美国有许多地区，教室过于拥挤，教学课程早已过时。而我们大多数敬业的好老师工资太低，反倒是许多不称职的老师工资还挺高。所以，我们必须要让学生有上课的地方，有传授知识的老师。贫穷从来都不应该成为阻止人们学习的障碍，而学习必须成为人们摆脱贫穷的一条出路。

But more classrooms and more teachers are not enough. We must seek an educational system which grows in excellence as it grows in size. This means better training for our teachers. It means preparing youth to enjoy their hours of leisure as well as their hours of labor. It means exploring new techniques of teaching, to find new ways to stimulate the love of learning and the capacity for creation.

但是仅仅更多的教室和更多的老师还是不够。我们必须要改革教育制度，使之质量和规模能同步增长。也就是说，我们要给老师更好的培训。我们要让孩子劳逸结合。我们要探索新的教学技巧，探索出新的方法，让孩子们爱上学习，敢于创新。

These are three of the central issues of the Great Society. While our Government has many programs directed at those issues, I do not pretend that we have the full answer to those problems.

上述便是伟大社会的三大主要问题。本届政府已经颁布了许多政府项目，以指导解决这些问题，我并不会夸口称，我们能彻底解决这些问题。

But I do promise this: We are going to assemble the best thought and the broadest knowledge from all over the world to find those answers for America. I intend to establish working groups to prepare a series of White House conferences and meetings—on the cities, on natural beauty, on the quality of education, and on other emerging challenges. And from these meetings and from this inspiration and from these studies we will begin to set our course toward the Great Society.

但是我可以向大家保证：政府会竭尽全力、集思广益，借鉴全世界各地的经验来解决美国面临的这些问题。我打算成立多个工作组，在白宫召集多场会议会谈——来处理城市弊病、自然破坏、教育质量等问题挑战。我们将以这些会议、这座大学，这些研究为起点，开始迈向伟大社会。

The solution to these problems does not rest on a massive program in Washington, nor can it rely solely on the strained resources of local authority. They require us to create new concepts of cooperation, a creative federalism, between the National Capital and the leaders of local communities.

这些问题的解决方案并不在华盛顿的各种政府项目之中，也不在地区政府有限的能力之中。而在我们之间，国家和地区之间需要相互配合，创新联邦，这些问题才有可能解决。

Woodrow Wilson once wrote: "Every man sent out from his university should be a man of his Nation as well as a man of his time."

伍德罗·威尔逊曾写道“每一个大学毕业生，都必须能够满足本国和本时代的需求。”

Within your lifetime powerful forces, already loosed, will take us toward a way of life beyond the realm of our experience, almost beyond the bounds of our imagination.

大家的力量将如同脱缰野马，带领我们跳出过去的限制，以超凡的想象力，奔向美好幸福生活。

For better or for worse, your generation has been appointed by history to deal with those problems and to lead America toward a new age. You have the chance never before afforded to any people in any age. You can help build a society where the demands of morality, and the needs of the spirit, can be realized in the life of the Nation.

无论如何，历史都将这些问题交给你们这一代美国人，同时也将带领美国跨入新纪元的使命交给了你们一代。你们手中掌握着任何人在任何时代都前所未有的机会。你们可以建造一个国民生活在道德、精神方面都能得到极大满足的伟大社会。

So, will you join in the battle to give every citizen the full equality which God enjoins and the law requires, whatever his belief, or race, or the color of his skin?

所以，大家是否愿意加入这场战斗，服从上帝的命令和法律的要求，让我们的公民能够摆脱信仰、种族和肤色的限制，完全平等地生活在同一片天空之下？

Will you join in the battle to give every citizen an escape from the crushing weight of poverty?

大家是否愿意加入这场战斗，让我们的公民能够有机会摆脱贫穷的压迫？

Will you join in the battle to make it possible for all nations to live in enduring peace—as neighbors and not as mortal enemies?

大家是否愿意加入这场战斗，让世界各国都能在永久和平之下——摒弃宿敌的身份，如睦邻一般友好共生？

Will you join in the battle to build the Great Society, to prove that our material progress is only the foundation on which we will build a richer life of mind and spirit?

大家是否愿意加入这场战斗，建立伟大社会，证明我们当前的物质进步，只不过实现精神意识富足的前奏而已？

There are those timid souls who say this battle cannot be won; that we are condemned to a soulless wealth. I do not agree. We have the power to shape the civilization that we want. But we need your will, your labor, your hearts, if we are to build that kind of society.

有些胆小鬼说，这场战斗毫无胜算；说我们注定在财富中丧失灵魂。我不相信。我们有能力造就我们所渴望的文明。但是我们需要大家的帮助，如果我们想要建成这种社会，就需要大家愿意真心付出实践。

Those who came to this land sought to build more than just a new country. They sought a new world. So I have come here today to your campus to say that you can make their vision our reality. So let us from this moment begin our work so that in the future men will look back and say: It was then, after a long and weary way, that man turned the exploits of his genius to the full enrichment of his life.

当年来到这片大陆的先驱者们，他们所追求的并不是一个新国家。而是新世界。所以我才来到贵校，告诉大家，你们有机会让他们的愿景成为现实。让我们从现在开始奋斗，待到未来的人们会看这一段历史时，他们会说：就从这时开始，人类在漫长的征程中，终于开始利用自己的聪明智慧改善富足自己的生活。

Thank you. Goodbye.

感谢大家。再见。

声明：本人仅按照原文翻译内容，演讲内容不代表本人观点。此专栏仅供历史和英语交流学习使用，任何读者皆可引用本人的译本。

希望来学习英语的观众明白：我觉得这些专栏的主要精华在于英语原文，而并非我的译本，我的译本很大程度上只是供来学习历史的观众使用的。本人的英语水平一般，翻译得并不会多么精彩，只能在你看不懂时来帮助你了解这些演讲内容最基本的意思，而且翻译时难免会出现差错，切勿直接完全以我的译本为标准。如发现有翻译错误或者歧义内容，欢迎指正。

希望来学习历史的观众明白：任何历史人物都有一定的局限性，随着时代发展，很多观点看法可能已经不再适用今天的世界，西方的观点也不一定适用于我们。通过了解这些演讲，仅可给我们提供一个更全面了解过去和世界的渠道。我们可以从优秀的历史、当代人物身上学到很多，但是请保持独立思考，理性看待演讲内容，切勿全信或将其奉为真理。