奧巴馬告別演說敦促美國人守護民主

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.

美國總統巴拉克?奧巴馬(Barack Obama)當地時間週二晚敦促美國人“小心謹慎地守護”他們的民主，找回他們作爲公民的共同目標。他說這番話是在就腐蝕性的政治對話、經濟不平等和種族關係撕裂構成的威脅發出警告。

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.

在距唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)的總統就職典禮僅剩10天之際，奧巴馬在自己的告別演說中宣稱，在離任之時，他要比當初當選之時更感樂觀。在演說的結尾，他再次喊出了陪伴他首次總統競選過程的那句口號：“是的，我們行。是的，我們做到了。是的，我們行。”

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.

但他對芝加哥喧囂人羣發表的演說，卻始終伴隨着對其身後留下的日益嚴峻的政治生態、社會中不斷擴大的鴻溝以及特朗普主政下不確定前景的擔憂。

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”.

奧巴馬圍繞一些可能撕裂美國民衆的刻薄、好鬥的黨同伐異言論談了很多，他有針對性地表示，“如果你厭倦了與互聯網上的陌生人爭辯，可以試着與現實生活中的人交談”。

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.

他說：“我們削弱了這些聯繫，我們聽任我們的政治對話變得如此具有腐蝕性，以至於品格良好的人被迫退隱、不願出任公職；我們聽任我們的政治對話變得如此粗俗、充滿怨恨，以至於那些與我們持不同意見的美國人不只受到誤導，而且不知怎地還懷有惡意。

“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.”

“我們弱化了這些聯繫，我們認定我們中的一些人比另一些人更美國；我們對整個體制予以徹底否定、認爲它不可避免地會腐敗，將責任推到我們選舉出的領導人頭上，卻不檢討我們自身在選舉他們時所扮演的角色。”

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.

奧巴馬在演講中列舉了自己總統任內取得的成就，他傳達出的很多信息可被解讀爲對其繼任者特朗普的警告，其中包括強烈反對任何對美國穆斯林的歧視，抨擊對氣候變化的否認，以及對已跨過大洋和格蘭德河(Rio Grande)來美的移民和難民表示祝賀。