羅斯福于1930年任紐約州長后的演講

羅斯福于1930年任紐約州長后的演講 英文版

In speaking to you, men of the greatest city of the West, men of the state which gave to the country Lincoln and Grant, men who preminently and distinctly embody all that is most American in the American character, I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease but the doctrine of the strenuous life; the life of toil and effort; of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes not to the man who desires mere easy peace but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph...

As it is with the individual so it is with the nation. It is a base untruth to say that happy is the nation that has no history. Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. If in 1861 the men who loved the Union had believed that peace was the end of all things and war and strife a worst of all things, and had acted up to their belief, we would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, we would have saved hundreds of millions of dollars. Moreover, besides saving all the blood and treasure we then lavished, we would have prevented the heartbreak of many women, the dissolution of many homes; and we would have spared the country those months of gloom and shame when it seemed as if our armies marched only to defeat. We would have avoided all this suffering simply by shrinking from strife. And if we had thus avoided it we would have shown that we were—weaklings and that we were unfit to stand among the great nations of the earth. Thank God for the iron in the blood of our fathers, the men who upheld the wisdom of Lincoln and bore sword or rifle in the armies of Grant! Let us, the children of the men who proved themselves equal to the mighty days—let us, the children of the men who carried the great Civil War to a triumphant conclusion, praise the God of our fathers that the ignoble counsels of peace were rejected, that the suffering and loss, the blackness of sorrow and despair, were unflinchingly faced and the years of strife endured; for in the end the slave was freed, the Union restored, and the mighty American Republic placed once more as a helmeted queen among nations.

We of this generation do not have to face a task such as that our fathers faced, but we have our tasks, and—woe to us if we fail to perform them!

We cannot, if we would, play the part of China, and be content to rot by inches in ignoble ease within our borders, taking no interest in what goes on beyond them; sunk in a scrambling commercialism; heedless of the higher life, the life of aspiration, of toil and risk; busying ourselves only with the wants of our bodies for the day; until suddenly we should find, beyond a shadow of question, what China has already found, that in this world the nation that has trained itself to a career of unwarlike and isolated ease is bound in the end to go down before other nations which have not lost the manly and adventurous qualities.

If we are to be a really great people, we must strive in good faith to play a great part in the world. We cannot avoid meeting great issues. All that we can determine for ourselves is whether we shall meet them well or ill. Last year we could not help being brought face to face with the problem of war with Spain. All we could decide was whether we should shrink like cowards from the contest or enter into it as beseemed a brave and high—spirited people; and, once in, whether failure or success should crown our banners. So it is now. We cannot avoid the responsibilities that confront us in Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. All we can decide is whether we shall meet them in a way that will redound to the national credit, or whether we shall make of our dealings with these new problems a dark and shameful page in our history. To refuse to deal with them at all merely amounts to dealing with them badly. We have a given problem to solve. If we undertake the solution there is, of course, always danger that we may not solve it aright, but to refuse to undertake the solution simply renders it certain that we cannot possibly solve it aright.

The timid man, the lazy man, the man who distrusts his country, the overcivilized man, who has lost the great fighting, masterful virtues, the ignorant man and the man of dull mind, whose soul is incapable of feeling the mighty lift that thrills “stern men with empires in their brains” —all these, of course, shrink from seeing the nation undertake its new duties; shrink from seeing us build a navy and army adequate to our needs; shrink from seeing us do our share of the world’s work by bringing order out of chaos in the great, fair tropic islands from which the valor of our soldiers and sailors has driven the Spanish flag. These are the men who fear the strenuous life, who fear the only national life which is really worth leading.

I preach to you, then, my countrymen, that our country calls not for the life of ease, but for the life of strenuous endeavor. The twentieth century looms before us big with the fate of many nations.

If we stand idly by, if we seek merely swollen, slothful ease, and ignoble peace, if we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at hazard of their lives and at the risk of all they hold dear, then the bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by and will win for themselves the domination of the world. Let us therefore boldly face the life of strife, resolute to do our duty well and manfully; resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and by word; resolute to be both honest and brave, to serve high ideals, yet to use practical methods. Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified; for it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness.

羅斯福于1930年任紐約州長后的演講 中文版

今天的聽眾來自美國西部最偉大的城市，這里出過林肯總統(tǒng)、格蘭特將軍這樣的偉人，這里的人民最突出最明顯地體現(xiàn)了美國人的特點，面對這樣偉大的人民，我想宣揚的不是可鄙的貪圖安逸享樂的人生哲學(xué)，而是生命不止奮斗不息的人生哲學(xué)。我認(rèn)為人生應(yīng)該為最出色的成就奮斗，這種成就絕不是那些想安閑地過日子的人們所能得到的，只有那些不畏艱險、不怕勞累的人們才有可能取得最后的輝煌勝利……

對一個人來說應(yīng)該奮斗不息，對一個民族來說也應(yīng)該如此。說沒有歷史的民族是幸福的民族，這是卑劣的謊言。具有光榮歷史的民族是十分幸運的。向強(qiáng)有力的事物挑戰(zhàn)，去奪取輝煌的勝利，即使遭受挫折也比茍且偷安強(qiáng)得多，因為得過且過的人生活在暗淡的暮光之中，既體驗不到勝利的歡樂，也嘗受不到失敗的痛苦。在1861年，要是那些熱愛聯(lián)邦的人們認(rèn)為和平是最終的目的，認(rèn)為戰(zhàn)爭與沖突是最不幸的事情，并且按這種想法去做了，那么我們可以避免千百萬人頭顱落地，可以節(jié)省大量的財力，而且除了可以省去我們所付出的生命和金錢方面的代價外，還可以使我們的婦女同胞免受心碎之苦，使我們的人民免遭家破人亡之罪。當(dāng)聯(lián)邦軍隊似乎只是在走向失敗時，我們的國家也可以免得陷入長達(dá)幾個月之久的憂愁與恥辱之中。要是我們在沖突面前畏縮不前，我們可以避免這些痛苦;要是我們回避了這些痛苦，我們就成了不配屹立于世界偉大民族之林的懦夫。感謝主給了我們先輩鋼鐵般的意志，他們支持了林肯總統(tǒng)的英明抉擇，拿起了刀槍加入了格蘭特將軍的隊伍。我們是不愧于偉大時代的英雄們的兒女，是把偉大內(nèi)戰(zhàn)進(jìn)行到底直至取得最后勝利的英雄們的后代，讓我們贊美主讓我們的先輩拒絕了可恥的主和意見，讓我們的先輩毫不畏縮地去面對痛苦、失敗、悲傷、失望的磨練，去經(jīng)歷幾年的內(nèi)戰(zhàn)，因為最后奴隸們獲得了解放，聯(lián)邦得到了保存，強(qiáng)大的美利堅合眾國再一次像巨人般地屹立于世界民族之林。

我們這一代人用不著面臨我們先輩所面臨的那種任務(wù)，但是，我們也有自己的任務(wù)，要是我們沒能完成我們的任務(wù)，我們就要遭到不幸。

我們決不能扮演中國的角色，要是我們重蹈中國的覆轍，自滿自足，貪圖自己疆域內(nèi)的安寧享樂，漸漸地腐敗墮落，對國外的事情毫無興趣。沉溺于紙醉金迷之中，忘掉了奮發(fā)向上，若干冒險的高尚生活，整天忙于滿足我們?nèi)怏w暫時的欲望，那么毫無疑問，總有一天我們會突然發(fā)現(xiàn)中國今天已經(jīng)發(fā)生的這一事實：畏懼戰(zhàn)爭、閉關(guān)鎖國、貪圖安寧享樂的民族在其他好戰(zhàn)、愛冒險民族的進(jìn)攻面前肯定是要衰敗的。

如果我們要成為真正偉大的民族，我們必須竭盡全力在國際事務(wù)中起巨大的作用。我們無法回避大問題，我們能決定的僅是該如何處理這些問題。去年我們被卷入了與西班牙的戰(zhàn)爭，那也是不可避免的。我們所能考慮的僅是我們該像懦夫那樣退縮呢?還是該勇敢、斗志昂揚地開赴戰(zhàn)場，以及一旦進(jìn)入了戰(zhàn)場，我們是否能打勝?現(xiàn)在的情況也是如此，我們無法回避在夏威夷、古巴、波多黎各和菲律賓所面臨的責(zé)任。我們所能考慮的僅是我們能否妥善處理這些問題，增強(qiáng)我國的威望，以及我們對這些新問題的處理不當(dāng)，會不會成為我們歷史上黑暗恥辱的一頁。拒絕處理這些問題與處理得一敗涂地沒什么兩樣。我們面臨著要我們處理的問題，要是我們著手去解決，必然存在著處理不當(dāng)?shù)奈ｋU，但是拒不處理就等于承認(rèn)我們根本無法處理。

懦夫，懶漢，對政府持懷疑態(tài)度的人，喪失了斗爭精神和支配能力文質(zhì)彬彬的人，愚昧無知的人，還有那些無法感受到堅定不移的人們，受到巨大鼓舞仍麻木不仁的人——所有這些人當(dāng)然害怕看到他們的國家承擔(dān)了新的職責(zé)，害怕看到我們建立能滿足我國需要的海軍和陸軍，害怕看到我們承擔(dān)國際義務(wù)，害怕看到我們勇敢的士兵和水手們把西班牙的軍隊趕出去，讓偉大美麗的熱帶島嶼從大亂中達(dá)到大治。這些人害怕過艱苦的生活，害怕過這種唯一值得的民族生活。

同胞們，我們國家要求大家過的不是安逸的生活而是艱苦奮斗的生活。二十世紀(jì)許多國家的命運將處于危難之中，這種危險也威脅著我們。

如果我們袖手旁觀，如果我們僅僅追求昏庸懶散的悠閑生活和安逸，如果我們不參與這種必須以生命和珍愛的一切去獲取勝利的激烈競爭，那么比我們野蠻強(qiáng)大的民族將甩開我們，控制整個世界。因此，讓我們勇敢地面對生活的挑戰(zhàn)，決心以男子漢大丈夫的氣概去完成我們的職責(zé)，用我們的誓言和行動來維護(hù)正義，既要真誠大膽又要采取切實可行的方法來實現(xiàn)我們的理想。最重要的是，只要我們認(rèn)為我們是站在正義一邊，我們都不要在國內(nèi)外物質(zhì)或精神上的沖突面前退縮，因為只有通過斗爭，通過艱苦危險的斗爭，我們才能實現(xiàn)我們民族進(jìn)步的目的。