Distinguished guests and my fellow citizens, the peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history, yet common in our country. With a simple oath, we affirm old tradition and make new beginnings.
I am honored and humbled to stand here, where so many of America's leaders have come before me, and so many will follow.
尊敬的来宾们，同胞们，政权的和平移交虽在历史上实属罕见，但在我国却不足为奇。我们以简单的誓言肯定老传统，开创新未来。我站在这里感到荣幸和谦卑，许多美国领导人曾在我前面走过，还会有许多人相继而来。
We have a place, all of us, in a long story - a story we continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old, a story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom, the story of a power that went into the world to protect but not to possess, to defend but not to conquer.
It is the American story - a story of flawed and fallible people, united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals.
在我们国家漫长的传奇历程中我们有自己的位置，我们所有人都有自己的位置，我们将延续这个历程，然而我们将看不到这个历程的尽头。这是一个新世界的继往开来的历程，一个由拥有奴隶的社会转变为崇尚自由的社会的历程，一个强国保护世界而非占有世界、捍卫世界而非征服世界的历程。
这就是美国的传奇历程，一个并非完美无缺的民族的传奇历程，一个世世代代因伟大而永恒的理想团结在一起的民族的传奇历程。
The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise that everyone belongs to, that everyone deserves a
chance, that no insignificant person was ever born. Americans are called to enact this promise in our lives and in our laws. And though our nation has sometimes halted, and sometimes delayed, we must follow no other course.
While many of our citizens prosper, others doubt the promise, even the justice, of our own country. The ambitions of some Americans are limited by failing schools and hidden prejudice and the circumstances of their birth. And sometimes our differences run so deep that it seems we share a continent, but not a country.
We do not accept this, and we will not allow it. Our unity, our union, is the serious work of leaders and citizens in every generation.
这些理想中最伟大的理想是展现在世人面前的美国诺言，即人人都有位置，人人都有机会，没有谁是微不足道之辈。美国人有责任在生活和法律中实践这一诺言。虽然我们国家有时会停滞不前，有时彷徨迟延，但是我们决不选择其他的道路。
在许多国人获得成功的同时，也有一些人对我们国家的这个诺言，甚至对我们国家本身的公正，表示怀疑。衰退的学校教育、潜在的偏见以及出生的环境限制了一些美国人的进取抱负。有时候我们之间分歧大得好象我们属于一个大陆但不属于一个国家。
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