罗伯特·肯尼迪 《包容与多元》演讲

1964年5月26日，美国司法部长罗伯特·肯尼迪来到西佐治亚学院，感谢该校以肯尼迪总统的名字命名了一座小教堂，他在演讲中缅怀逝去的兄长，然后引出美国的宗教问题，呼吁人们彼此包容，相互理解，将美国打造成更加多元的社会。

I come today to express the pride and the deeply felt appreciation of the Kennedy family for the honor you pay to President Kennedy by naming your chapel after him, and to join with you in expressing thanks to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church for its creative generosity.

我今天到此，希望代表肯尼迪家族表达我们的自豪和感谢之情，感谢贵校以肯尼迪总统的名字命名了这座小教堂，我也和大家一起感谢永助圣母天主教会的慷慨解囊。

I thank you for I know that what you are doing here, at this growing and enlightened institution which has done so much for its community, would be a source of great satisfaction to President Kennedy. And I thank you for the many kindnesses Georgia extended to him, beginning in November, 1960.

我感谢大家，因为我知道这个不断发展的开明学院为社区贡献良多，各位的所作所为，一定能够宽慰肯尼迪总统的在天之灵。

His candidacy and election exemplify tolerance. This chapel is an expression of the same spirit of tolerance. And that is a spirit which is as old as Georgia.

肯尼迪总统的参选竞选之路，尽显包容精神。而这座小教堂也体现了包容精神。自佐治亚诞生之刻，包容精神就与之共生。

The charitable groups in England which sponsored settlement of the colony of Georgia saw it as a haven for the persecuted and the poor. Contributions poured in from all classes of people. The clergy, for example, gave thousands of books. One of the notable titles was A Friendly Admonition to the Drinkers of Gin, Brandy and other Spirituous Liquors, a volume whose message, I am certain, is still being taken to heart.

英国的慈善组织资助佐治亚殖民地的开发，将其打造为受迫害者和穷苦者的避风港。各阶层人民都为其发展作出了贡献。比如说，神职人员捐献了成千上万本书。其中有一本很著名的书，叫《给杜松子酒、白兰地等烈酒饮客的劝诫》，我相信这本书里的各种告诫，大家已经烂熟于心。

Your first settlers were warmly received by the other colonies. South Carolina sent horses, cattle, hogs, rice, and 2,000 pounds in cash. Thomas Penn sent 100 pounds in cash. In my home state, however, the opponents of foreign aid prevailed; the Governor of Massachusetts sent his best wishes.

佐治亚的第一批殖民者也受到了其他殖民地的热烈欢迎。南卡罗来纳送来了马匹、耕牛、肉猪、大米和2000英镑的现金。托马斯·潘恩捐了100英镑现金。而我的家乡马萨诸塞，虽然反对捐助；不过总督还是对佐治亚进行了美好祝愿。

Georgia flourished nonetheless. Its promise for religious refugees was so great that before the colony was six years old, it had as varied a population as any, with Swiss, Salzburgers, Moravians, Germans, Jews, Piedmontese, Scotch Highlanders, Welsh, and English.

但无论如何，佐治亚还是发展了起来。对于受到宗教迫害的人来说，佐治亚简直就是梦寐以求之地，佐治亚建立的第六年，其人口多元性就不亚于任何其他殖民地，这里有瑞士人、萨尔茨堡人、摩拉维亚人、德意志人、犹太人、皮埃蒙特人、苏格兰高地人、威尔士人和英格兰人。

Yet not even in the New World, not even in Georgia, did all the early settlers find freedom of faith. Catholics, for example, were not admitted to Georgia for seventy years. In other colonies, they were harassed, Quakers were jailed and Protestant sects were hounded.

但在新世界、在佐治亚，并不是所有定居者一开始都能享有信仰自由。比如说，佐治亚曾禁止天主教徒入境长达70年之久。在其他殖民地，天主教徒受到迫害，贵格会教徒被关进监狱，新教徒受到种种监视。

It was in the South, in Virginia, that resentment against these practices flowered into religious freedom. With Madison and Jefferson in the vanguard, the Virginia Bill of Religious Liberty was enacted, to be followed by the First Amendment, separating church and state.

在南方的弗吉尼亚，人们首先反对这种宗教迫害，进而绽放出了宗教自由的第一朵花。在麦迪逊和杰斐逊的牵头下，《弗吉尼亚宗教自由法》得以颁布，未来我们国家仿照这一法案，制定了宪法第一修正案，确立了政教分离原则。

Official intolerance thus ended. Religions were free to preach, to grow, and to multiply. If a group of Boston people thought the world was going to end in the mid-nineteenth century, they were free to congregate in a theater, clad in robes, ready to perish together.

从此，我们终结了政治狭隘了。各信仰都可以在美国自由传教、自由变化、自由发展。如果一群波士顿人认为，19世纪中期世界会毁灭，他们可以穿着长袍，聚到剧院里，准备一同赴死。

If Mormons or Christian Scientists -- or followers of sects with more limited appeal, like that of the mystic Madame Blavatsky, have sought to express their faith in new ways, they have been free to do so. If Catholics have chosen to attend mass early Sunday and Jews to observe the Sabbath at sundown Friday, there has been none to forbid them.

如果摩门教徒，或者基督神学家——或布拉瓦茨基夫人的神秘学，这一类更小众的宗教信徒，如果他们想用新的方式表达信仰，他们完全可以那么做。如果天主教徒想在周日早上做弥撒，犹太人想在周五落日后开始安息日，也没有人会阻止他们。

And yet, as has been demonstrated repeatedly during our history, legal separation of church and state is not enough. It ended official intolerance; it could not end private intolerance.

然而，我们的历史已经多次证明，仅仅法律上的政教分离是完全不够的。它只能将狭隘思想从公共事务中剔除出去；但是狭隘依然存在于人们心中。

And there have been those, throughout our history -- and particularly in times of crisis -- who have preached intolerance, who have sought to escape reality and responsibility with a slogan or a scapegoat. Religious groups have been the first targets but they have net been the only ones.

我国历史上，总有人宣扬狭隘思想——特别是在危机时刻——他们不愿面对现实，不愿意承担自己的责任，高喊着各种口号，让他人成为替罪羊。宗教团体往往首当其冲，但远非唯一受害者。

There are these who suspect their neighbors because they pray to a different God -- or because they pray to none at all. And there are those who bellow that a former President of the United States is a tool of the Communist conspiracy.

有些人猜疑自己的邻居，仅仅是因为他们和自己祈祷的不是同一个神——或者他们从不向神祈祷。甚至有人声称，美国的一位前总统是共产阵营的傀儡。

There are these who preach that desegregation of the schools will destroy our society. And there are others who believe that calamity will occur because of the way we may treat our drinking water.

有些人声称，取消学校内的种族隔离会毁掉我们的社会。有人认为，我们处理饮用水的方法会引发灾祸。

There is freedom in this country to be extreme, to propose the most reactionary or the most Utopian solutions to all the problems of the country or even the world. There is freedom here to believe and act with passion, whether for the cause of religion, or party, or personal welfare.

我国人民享有完全的自由，允许人民为如何解决我国问题和世界问题而提出最反动和最激进的措施。我国有信仰自由和人身自由，这一自由不会受到教派、党派和个人财富的影响。

"If there be any among us," Jefferson said, “who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its Republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it."

杰斐逊总统曾说过，“如果我们中有人想让联邦解体，或者想改变我国的共和制度，他们的存在恰好证明了我国很安全，证明了我国可以容忍不同意见和错误，请勿干扰他们，让我们用智慧纠正他们。”

What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.

极端主义者最令人厌恶的、最危险的一点，不在于极端本身，而在于他们的狭隘。他们的错误不在于他们怎么宣扬自己，而是他们怎么宣扬他们的反对者。

The intolerant man will not rely on persuasion, or on the worth of the idea. He would deny to others the very freedom of opinion or of dissent which he so stridently demands for himself. He cannot trust democracy.

狭隘者的手段从不是据理力争，也不是思想交流。而是剥夺异议者自由发表观点的权利，这一他自己不愿放弃的权利。这种人不会信任民主。

Frustrated by rejection, he condemns the motives, the morals, or the patriotism of all who disagree. Whether he is inflamed by politics, or religion -- or drinking water, he still spreads selfish slogans and false fears.

这种人讨厌遭到反驳，一旦遭到驳斥，他们就会指控反对者动机不良、道德恶劣、背叛祖国。无论是在政治问题上，宗教问题上——还是饮用水问题上，他们都会散播这种利己说辞和虚无恐惧。

America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity -- the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.

美国对这些狭隘者的回应就是两个字：多元——我国宗教自由所催生的遗产，多元。

The largest Scandinavian nation in the world is the United States. The largest Irish nation in the world is the United States. The second largest German nation in the world is the United States. And like statements could be made about other American ethnic groups.

世界上斯堪的纳维亚人最多的国家是美国。世界上爱尔兰人最多的国家是美国。世界上德意志人第二多的国家还是美国。这种例子，在美国各种族中数不胜数。

Many voices, many views all have combined into an American consensus, and it has been a consensus of good sense. "In the multitude of counselors, there is safety," says the Bible, and so it is with American democracy. Tolerance is an expression of trust in that consensus and each new enlargement of tolerance is an enlargement of democracy.

不同的声音和观念合并为美国的共同价值观，而这一价值观的核心就是善良。《圣经》中说，“谋士多，人便安居”，我们美国的民主制度正是如此。包容就代表我们相信这一价值观，我们每多一份包容，民主的光芒都愈加璀璨。

President Kennedy's election was such an enlargement. It expanded religious freedom to include the highest office in the land. President Kennedy's administration was such an enlargement. It advanced the day when the bars of intolerance against all minority groups will be lifted, not only for the Presidency, but for all aspects of our national life.

肯尼迪总统的胜选，就又一次发扬了这种包容。让宗教自由拓展到了我国最高职务。肯尼迪总统的政府也发扬了这种包容。本届政府会打压针对少数群体的敌视，让包容的光芒早日照耀所有人，不仅要照耀到总统职位，还要照耀到我们国民生活的方方面面。

And this chapel is a warmly fitting tribute to President Kennedy not only because it bears his name but because it, too, expresses and advances the spirit of tolerance among religions and among men.

贵校以这座小教堂向肯尼迪总统致敬，显得再合适不过，不仅仅是因为它承载着肯尼迪总统的名字，更是因为它象征着不同宗教、不同人群之间的包容。

It was for this spirit that President Kennedy spoke, acted, lived, and led. "Let us go forth," he said, in the closing words of his Inaugural Address, "to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own. "

肯尼迪总统生前的所言所行都为传扬这一精神，他为此而生，带头前进。他在就职演讲的最后一段说，“让我们带领这片深爱的土地继续前进，与此同时，我们祈祷上帝的保佑和帮助，但是要记住，在凡世间，上帝的事业必须由我们亲手完成。”

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。