【09.07.04 英国每日电讯】独立日，全美举国欢庆

xiongshu

【中文标题】 独立日，全美举国欢庆
【原文标题】 It's July Fourth and Americans are in the mood to celebrate
『登载媒体】每日电讯
【来源地址】 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5735852/Its-July-Fourth-and-Americans-are-in-the-mood-to-celebrate.html  
【原文库链接】 http://bbs.m4.cn/thread-178057-1-1.html
【译者】 xiongshu
【翻译方式】 人工翻译
【声明】 本翻译供Anti-CNN使用，未经AC或译者许可，不得转载
【译稿】

It's July Fourth and Americans are in the mood to celebrate
   
  独立日，全美举国欢庆

Despite the economic and military gloom hanging over Independence Day, Americans are feeling optimistic
  
  尽管在独立日这一天，经济依旧不景气，军事活动也不甚理想，但美国人还是乐观看待一切。

It's easy to forget the very beginning of Barack Obama's address upon taking office on January 20. "Thank you. Thank you," he said in his now familiar way, seeking to quiet the crowd of over one million people. The crowd would have none of it, roaring: "Obama! Obama! Obama! Obama!" And so it has been ever since. We are today, on the 4th of July, 165 days into the Obama presidency. The euphoria of his election persists, and as Americans celebrate Independence Day, the very fact of his presidency adds something new and historic for them to feel good about: a black American family in a White House built by slaves.

  今年1月20日，Barack Obama先生在竞选大会上向数以百万计以上的观众致感谢辞时的情景，人们已经记不得了。“谢谢，谢谢”，Obama总统试图以这样的方式让当时数以超过一百万观众安静下来，这可是他现在轻车熟路的套路了。支持他的群众可“不买账”呢，不停的高喊着“Obama! Obama! Obama! Obama!”的口号。现在支持者们还是这样。今天，7月4日这一天，是Obama总统当选165天的日子。Obama先生当选总统带给人民的喜悦之情还在蔓延，当美国民众庆祝独立日这一天时，Obama当选总统这一史实给欢庆国庆的人们增添了新的值得庆祝的地方：这所由黑奴所建造的白宫，现在的主人是美国黑人一家。

But there's something else especially American about this year's celebration of the Fourth. It is the seam of unshakeable optimism that courses through American society. Americans remain high on Obama at a particularly difficult time in their country's history, their exhilaration masking deepening problems beneath the surface. "Green shoots" in the American economy are overwhelmed by bad economic news. Obama's ambitious plans for domestic policy reform are mostly destined to be diluted or thwarted by Congress. His transformative foreign policy agenda, marking a clean break from George W Bush, is running into familiar stone walls – a recalcitrant government in Israel, a cynical leadership in Iran.

  但对今年庆祝独立的美国民众来说，还有其他一些特别“美国化”的东西---这就是在全美上下势不可挡的乐观主义中所存在的瑕疵。美国民众对Obama总体的期望很高，尤其是当前美国正处在史上非常困难的一段时期，而民众的热情却将一些问题掩盖了起来。美国经济的“绿色崛起”受到来自经济上不利消息的压制。总统先生雄心勃勃，要改革国内政策，但他的计划不是遭到了国会阻挠而效力大减，就是根本没有得到国会的批准。外交方面，他的政策极富革新，与前任总统G.W.Bush先生的外交政策可谓泾渭分明，但碰上的挡路石却和Bush先生的遭遇如出一辙---顽固不化的以色列政府和处处敌对的伊朗政府。

Then there's the legacy of Bush's wars. Last Tuesday was the day America took the last of its 120,000 troops off the streets of Iraqi cities, garrisoned them, and began a phased withdrawal from the country, leaving Iraqi forces in charge. Washington and Baghdad are holding their breath, waiting to see if the end of the American surge translates into a surge in violence.

  接着，Obama总统要处理的就是前任总统发动战争造成的遗留问题。上周二美国开始逐渐撤离其在伊拉克城镇驻扎的120，000名作战士兵，只留下部分负责顾问和培训的人员戍守城镇，至此开始了从伊全面撤军的计划，并最终由伊拉克部队接管该国。美国和伊拉克两国政府都屏息凝视，等着看此次美国的大规模撤军会不会激起伊拉克当地暴力事件的再次爆发。

In Afghanistan, where a US surge is just beginning and where a US soldier was thought to have been captured by the Taliban this week, there's pessimism as to whether any outside show of force can turn Afghanistan into something other than the tribal battleground it's been since Britain effectively created it in the 19th century.
  
  在阿富汗，美军的大规模军事行动才刚刚开始，而据悉本周一名美军士兵就被塔利班份子抓获。自19世纪英国力图在阿富汗这片土地上挑起战事（指19世纪英殖民政府两次入侵阿富汗的侵略战争）以来，对外国力量的到来能否史阿富汗摆脱战争局面，人们并不持乐观态度。
  
And yet the quaintly patriotic, sentimental and sometimes moving celebratory routines taking place on Main Streets and in back gardens across the United States today will not, with few exceptions, be dampened by the storm clouds gathering overhead. Whether they've been there for generations or a few years, Americans are an optimistic, striving, forward-looking people. They do not lean on history the way Britons do; indeed, they probably have too little regard for the past: this British strength is no doubt an American weakness. But America's forward thrust is a key component of its national character. If in Britain the past dominates and guides the present, in America it is the future that rules. "He's history" – which is to say, somebody is over, finished – is an expression that could only have been coined in America.

  在美国各家后院及主干道上，经常有人搞别开生面感人肺腑的表演，以表达其爱国热情。除了极个别情况，如今大家伙都不会在意被头上聚集的乌云淋湿衣身。不管是世代定居于此还是刚移民来这几年，在美国人人都乐观向上积极进取。他们不会去照搬英国人的模式；事实上，他们对过去并不在意：英国人重视历史，这成为了英国发展的动力；而美国人对过往不屑一顾，这往往就是他们的缺点。但美国人不断大踏步前行的性格恰恰是他们民族品质中最关键的一部分。如果说在英国，是历史经验主导和统治了当前时代，那在美国未来和希望高于一切。“他已载入史册了”-这是在说某人统治主导的时代结束了-这是只有美国人才会表达的意思。

The gravitational pull of the future on American society exerts itself even on the day the country is celebrating its Declaration of Independence from Britain 233 years ago. The Obama presidency is a historic moment made possible by America's faith in the future and its willingness to break from the past. America is in a slow, probably very slow, decline as we move from what was for a while a unipolar world into a multipolar one; unlike the 20th, the 21st century will not be known as "the American Century." Obama is a gale of fresh air, America's great black hope at an unsettling time. After the Bush years, when over time most Americans came to share the rest of the world's unease with US policies, Americans, even many who didn't vote for Barack Hussein Obama, are happy to embrace him as the first global President, this relatively young black American with African roots, a South Asian childhood, and a Middle Eastern middle name.

  即使就在为纪念233年前美利坚合众国联邦政府发表《独立宣言》，宣布从大不列颠帝国独立出来的这一天，未来新社会犹如万有引力一般，拉动着美国社会不断前进。美国人对未来的信念以及冲破历史桎梏的意念让Obama先生当选总统这一具有历史意义的时刻成为现实。当全世界都在迅速从一个单极世界走向多极化世界时，美国正经历着着一次缓慢的，非常缓慢的退歩。和20世纪不一样，人们不会把21世纪看作是“美国化的一百年”。Obama总统，这位被称为“给美国带来希望的黑人”，就如一阵疾风，带着清新的空气在这个动荡时代吹过美国的土地。在Bush总统执政期间，大多数美国人和其他地区的人们一同承受着其推行的政策给世界所带来的不安和动荡。此时，即使那些没有给Barack Hussein Obama先生投票的美国人，都很乐意去拥抱这位“世界性”总统先生。总统先生相对而言很年轻，拥有非洲藉血缘，其童年时代在南亚度过，而他名字中的Hussein则来自中东地区。

Against this backdrop, the usual luxury of time enjoyed by any new leader is greatly magnified in Obama's case. Don't be misled by the stories of malcontents, the murmurs of presidential assassination plots, or the carping of fringe politicians and commentators who say he's importing "European-style socialism" to the United States. (With its focus on social issues like abortion and the teaching of evolution and on self-sufficiency and entrepreneurship, the American political landscape is so far to the Right of Britain's that David Cameron would have a very hard time finding room for his views in today's Republican Party.) Barely five months into his presidency, Americans are not running out of patience with Obama.

  在这样的背景下，Obama总统就获得了比一般新官上任时更充裕的时间去赢得大众的支持。你们可别被不满者捏造的事端、密谋行刺总统者的阴谋给迷惑了，也别被身处政局边缘不得势的政治家的吹毛求疵声以及说总统要给美国引进“欧式社会主义”的评论者的喋喋不休给误导了。（这些评论者就关心像流产啊）总统先生当选才不过五个月，美国人还没有对他失去耐心呢。

There's no denying that the weight of expectation on his shoulders is enormous, and that this carries a political risk if and when Obama fails to deliver. He and his advisers have walked a tightrope, simultaneously trying to tamp down expectations while taking advantage of them to propose the most sweeping legislative reforms and recasting of foreign policy in memory. His very first days in office set the tone and pace for what was to come. He directed the US military to withdraw troops from Iraq. He ordered the closing of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp by January 2010. He lifted the veil of secrecy over presidential records, and instituted procedures to make the Freedom of Information Act even more powerful. He reversed the Bush ban on funding of clinics and other agencies overseas that permit abortions.

  毫无疑问，压在总统先生肩上的担子可不轻，一旦总统没有能挽回当前局势，他还要承担政治上的风险（罢免或弹劾）。总统先生和他的参谋们已经走上了一条钢索，在承担民众期望的同时既要利用民愿来推行彻底革新的法制改革，还要改变我们记忆中所熟悉的美国式外交策略。就在总统先生上任的最初几天他就为接下来将要发生的一切打下基调。他主导了美军从伊拉克的撤军计划。他下令在2010年1月前关闭关塔那摩湾的所有军事监狱。他将总统档案记录向公众公开，并采取措施使信息自由法案的法律效力更强。他撤销了前总统Bush关于禁止设立允许实施流产的诊所和其他海外机构的禁令。

Obama has barely slowed his breakneck speed since then – from opening the door to embryonic stem cell research to signing a $787-billion economic stimulus package to pressing for universal health-care insurance to nominating a female Hispanic judge to the Supreme Court. Given the breadth and scope of his agenda, there's plenty of room for failure and disappointment. Along the way, a deteriorating economy will, in coming months, tighten its grip on the American people. Just this past week, the US unemployment rate hit 9.5 per cent, the highest in a generation, and regulators seized seven banks, bringing the number of failed lenders this year to 52.

  Obama总统从上任后就没有停下大踏步前行的脚步-从允许胚胎干细胞研究到签署7870亿美元的一揽子经济刺激方案到推行全球保健保险再到为最高法院提名一位拉丁裔女法官。在他的议案开展的有如此广度和深度下，就有足够的空间来接纳推行中的出现的失败和民众的失望。按照这样下去，在接下去的几个月内，已经日趋恶化的经济状况将又一次
  
But even with the wolves of economic slowdown howling at the door, as Americans celebrate the Glorious Fourth this weekend, they will characteristically look ahead to brighter days, lifted in no small part by the man who in his Inaugural Address told them that as hard as these times are, "the time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history," and who in a speech in Philadelphia last year reminded them that his story was an affirmation of their story, of America's story: "I've gone to some of the best schools in America, and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible."

  就在这周，全美上下都在欢庆7月4日独立日的到来，徘徊在美国的全球经济危机这匹贪婪的饿狼也放低了它嚎叫声，以美国人骨子里的性格，他们一定会放眼于更加光明的前途和未来。Obama总统让所有美国人都激情澎湃，他在就职典礼上告诉民众，当前美国处在一个很艰难的时期，“是时候让我们重新树立起坚韧不拔的精神了，让我们做主来书写这历史上更美好的一页”，他在去年于费城的演说中告诉民众，自己的人生和民众的一样，就是要实现美国之梦：“我曾就读于美国最好的几所学校，也在世界上最贫穷的国度生活过。我的妻子是位美国黑人，她的血管里流淌的是黑奴和奴隶主的血液-我们夫妻两把我们的血脉注入了两个宝贝女儿的身体内。我有兄弟姊妹、侄子侄女、外甥外甥女、叔伯舅父，还有表兄表弟。所有这些亲戚分布居住于三个大洲，来自不同种族，肤色也不尽相同。但只要我还活着，我就永远不会忘记，美国才是让我的人生走到现在的国度。”

That's what Americans mean – or should mean – when on this day, amid fireworks and small-town parades and wildly multi-ethnic cookouts in great city parks, they say or sing, "God Bless America"!

  这就是美国，这就是美国人-或者说这应该就是美利坚合众国-当7月4日，独立日的到来，在大城市的公园里，烟花簇放，来自各个小镇的游行队伍整装出发，到处都是来自各地的小吃。美国人或吟或唱，“天佑美国”。

克不容缓

就快过气了