奥巴马告别演说敦促美国人守护民主

Barack Obama on Tuesday night urged Americans to be “anxious, jealous guardians” of their democracy and to rediscover their common purpose as citizens, as he warned of the threats presented by corrosive political dialogue, economic inequality and fractious race relations.

美国总统巴拉克?奥巴马(Barack Obama)当地时间周二晚敦促美国人“小心谨慎地守护”他们的民主，找回他们作为公民的共同目标。他说这番话是在就腐蚀性的政治对话、经济不平等和种族关系撕裂构成的威胁发出警告。

Ten days before the inauguration of Donald Trump as president, Mr Obama declared in a farewell message that he leaves office more optimistic than when he was elected and renewed the mantra that accompanied his first run for the presidency. “Yes we can. Yes we did. Yes we can,” he concluded.

在距唐纳德?特朗普(Donald Trump)的总统就职典礼仅剩10天之际，奥巴马在自己的告别演说中宣称，在离任之时，他要比当初当选之时更感乐观。在演说的结尾，他再次喊出了陪伴他首次总统竞选过程的那句口号：“是的，我们行。是的，我们做到了。是的，我们行。”

But his speech to a boisterous crowd in Chicago was shot through with anxiety about the increasingly vicious political scene that Mr Obama leaves behind him, the divisions that have opened up in society, and the uncertain prospects of a Trump presidency.

但他对芝加哥喧嚣人群发表的演说，却始终伴随着对其身后留下的日益严峻的政治生态、社会中不断扩大的鸿沟以及特朗普主政下不确定前景的担忧。

The president dwelt in particular on the bitter and aggressive partisan rhetoric that risks pulling Americans apart, at one stage pointedly saying “if you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try to talk with one in real life”.

奥巴马围绕一些可能撕裂美国民众的刻薄、好斗的党同伐异言论谈了很多，他有针对性地表示，“如果你厌倦了与互联网上的陌生人争辩，可以试着与现实生活中的人交谈”。

Mr Obama said: “We weaken those ties when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive that people of good character are turned off from public service; so coarse with rancour that Americans with whom we disagree are not just misguided, but somehow malevolent.

他说：“我们削弱了这些联系，我们听任我们的政治对话变得如此具有腐蚀性，以至于品格良好的人被迫退隐、不愿出任公职；我们听任我们的政治对话变得如此粗俗、充满怨恨，以至于那些与我们持不同意见的美国人不只受到误导，而且不知怎地还怀有恶意。

“We weaken those ties when we define some of us as more American than others; when we write off the whole system as inevitably corrupt, and blame the leaders we elect without examining our own role in electing them.”

“我们弱化了这些联系，我们认定我们中的一些人比另一些人更美国；我们对整个体制予以彻底否定、认为它不可避免地会腐败，将责任推到我们选举出的领导人头上，却不检讨我们自身在选举他们时所扮演的角色。”

As Mr Obama listed the achievements of his presidency, many of his messages could be read as warnings to Mr Trump, his successor. These included a strong rejection of any discrimination against Muslim Americans, an attack on climate change denial, and celebration of immigrants and refugees who had come across oceans and the Rio Grande.

奥巴马在演讲中列举了自己总统任内取得的成就，他传达出的很多信息可被解读为对其继任者特朗普的警告，其中包括强烈反对任何对美国穆斯林的歧视，抨击对气候变化的否认，以及对已跨过大洋和格兰德河(Rio Grande)来美的移民和难民表示祝贺。