Speech by Former U．S．President Carter at Welcoming Banquet
美国前总统卡特在欢迎宴会上的讲话

29 June 1987
1987年6月29日

Permit me first to thank our Chinese hosts for your extraordinary arrangements and hospitality．My wife and I，as well as our entire party，are deeply grateful．In the short period of six days，we have gone a longer distance than the Long March．We have acquired a keen sense of the diversity，dynamism，and progress of China under your policies of reform and opening to the outside world．

首先，请允许我对中国主人十分出色的安排和款待表示感谢。我的夫人和我以及全体随行人员都深为感激。在过去短短六天里，我们所走的路程比长征的路程还长。我们强烈地感受到你们执行的改革和对外开放政策给中国带来的多样化、活力和进步。

More than eight years have passed since Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping and I joined hands to establish full diplomatic relations between our two great nations．Our hope and vision was to forge a Sino-American relationship which would contribute to world peace and the welfare of our two peoples．I personally looked upon the forging of firm Sino-American ties as a historically significant experiment．

自从邓小平副总理和我共同建立我们两个伟大国家之间的正式外交关系以来，已经八年多了。建立一种有利于世界和平和我们两国人民幸福的中美关系是我们当时的希望和憧憬。我本人把建立牢固的中美关系看作是具有历史意义的尝试。

We faced the question in 1978，as to some extent we still do today：Can two nations as different as ours—yours one of the oldest civilizations on earth，mine one of the youngest；yours a socialist state and mine committed to capitalism；yours a developing country and mine a developed one—can two nations surmount and indeed draw upon these differences to build an unprecedented and distinctive relationship in world affairs？

我们在1987年乃至今天在某种程度上面临的问题仍然是：我们两国迥然不同，贵国是地球上最老的文明古国之一，而我国是最年轻的国家之一；贵国是社会主义国家，而我国致力于资本主义；贵国是发展中国家，而我国是发达国家；像这样的两个国家是否能够超越这些差异并利用它在世界事务中建立一种前所未有的、独具特色的关系？

If we are successful，in one great step our two nations will have been able to ease one of the greatest sources of tension in international affairs：that between the developing and developed worlds．We still have a long way to go，and it is still too early to conclude that our experiment will culminate in success，but certainly the results of the first ten years are promising．Sino-American ties have become extensive，affecting all aspects of our national lives：commerce，culture，education，scientific exchange ，and our separate national security policies．

如果我们取得成功，我们两国就能迈出一大步缓和国际事务中最大的一个造成紧张的因素，即发展中世界与发达世界的关系。我们面前还有很长的路，现在断言我们的尝试将会圆满成功还为时过早，但是头十年肯定是富有成效的。中美关系现在非常广泛，涉及我们人民生活的各个方面：商业、文化、教育、科学交流，以及我们各自的国家安全政策。

I am most proud of the large number of Chinese students being educated in our country—now about 18,000．I teach some of them and see the benefits that come from this exchange．At the same time we are learning valuable lessons from you．Nonetheless，problems remain in our economic，educational and strategic relations．

我感到十分自豪的是大量的中国学生—现在大约有18,000人——正在美国学习。我也教过他们中一些人，并看到了这种交流所带来的益处。同时我们也从你们那里学到非常宝贵的经验。尽管如此，在我们的经济、教育和战略关系中仍然存在着问题。

As a private American citizen  I recognize that many of the burdens and opportunities of our relationship have now passed to the non-governmental sectors of our two societies：to individuals，our corporations，universities，research institutes，foundations，and so on．There is no doubt that Sino-American relations have reached a new stage． In this context， it is important for our two societies to search for areas of cooperation which clearly add to our mutual benefit．

作为一个普通的美国公民，我知道我们关系中的许多责任和机会现在已经转到了我们两个社会的民间部门，即转到了个人、公司、大学、研究机构、基金会等等。毫无疑问，中美关系已达到了一个新的阶段。在这种情况下，我们两个社会应该寻求那些对我们两国确实互利的合作领域，这是很重要的。

In that regard，I am delighted that Global 2000—BCCI is launching two projects in the area of public health．Although ours is relatively quite small，such activities，when combined with our common foreign policy interests and a growing commercial relationship，should help to remove the lingering fragility in Sino-American relations.

我很高兴“全球2000年”——国际商业信贷银行正在公共卫生领域从事两个项目。虽然我们的项目比较小，但这些活动同我们共同的外交政策利益以及不断增长的商业关系结合起来，就会有助于消除中美关系中仍然存在的脆弱性。

注释：
1．extraordinary译作“十分出色的”，好与“安排和款待”搭配。
2．汉语一般把“我”放在前面。此处照原文顺序译作“我的夫人和我”，也是可以的。
3．译文在这句话里重复“路程”，这样较顺。
4．full diplomatic relations译作“正式外交关系”。
5．原文as different as ours是一个定语，修饰two nations。译文把这一部分变为一个分句，下面从容展开，论述两国之不同，而不给人以谓语迟迟不出来的感觉。
6．“贵国”是汉语特有的一种客气的说法。在英语里还是说your country。
7．committed to译作“致力于”，这是常见的一种译法。
8．原文the large number of Chinese students being educated…是一个短语，译文用了一个主谓结构。
9．lessors在这里没有贬义，所以译作“经验”。
10．private表示“不在官方任职”，所以译作“普通的”。
11．burdens指需要完成的繁重的事务，此处译作“责任”。也可译作“任务”。
12．non-governmental sectors译作“民间部门”。“民间”词，在英语里往往找不到合适的对应词，一般就译作non-governmental。
13．英语it is important放在句首，译文“这是很重要的”一般放在句末。

 

来源：庄绎传《英汉简明翻译教程》

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