An Epoch-making Toast
划时代的祝酒词
Mr. Prime Minister and all of your distinguished guests this evening:
总理先生、今夜在座的诸位贵宾：
1. On behalf of all of your American guests, I wish to thank you for the incomparable hospitality for which the Chinese people are justly famous throughout the world. I particularly want to pay tribute, not only to those who prepared the magnificent dinner, but also to those who have provided the splendid music. Never have I heard American music played better in a foreign land.
1、我谨代表你们的所有美国客人向你们表示感谢，感谢你们的无可比拟的盛情款待。中国人民以这种盛情款待而闻名世界。我不仅要特别赞扬那些准备了这次盛大晚宴的人，而且还要赞扬那些给我们演奏这样美好的音乐的人。我在外国从来没有听到过演奏得这么好的美国音乐。
2. Mr. Prime Minister, I wish to thank you for your very gracious and eloquent remarks. At this very moment, through the wonder of telecommunications, more people are seeing and hearing what we say than on any other such occasion in the whole history of the world. Yet what we say here will not be long remembered. What we do here can change the world.
2、总理先生，我要感谢你的非常亲切和雄辩的讲话。就在这个时刻，通过电讯的奇迹，看到和听到我们讲话的人比在整个世界历史上任何其他这样的场合都要多。不过，我们在这里讲的话，人们不会长久记住。我们在这里所做的事却能改变世界。
3. As you said in your toast, the Chinese people are a great people, the American people are a great people. If our two peoples are enemies, the future of this world we share together is dark indeed. But if we can find common ground to work together, the chance for world peace is immeasurably increased.
3、正如你在祝酒词中讲的那样，中国人民是伟大的人民，美国人民是伟大的人民。如果我们两国人民为敌的话，那么我们共同居住的这个世界的前途就的确是黑暗的了。但是，如果我们能够找到进行合作的共同点，那么实现世界和平的机会就无可估量地大大增加了。
4. In the spirit of frankness which I hope will characterize our talks this week, let us recognize at the outset these points: We have at times in the past been enemies. We have great differences today. What brings us together is that we have common interests which transcend those differences. As we discuss our differences, neither of us will compromise our principles. But while we cannot close the gulf between us, we can try to bridge it so that we may be able to talk across it.
4、我希望我们这个星期的会谈将是坦率的。本着这种坦率的精神，让我们一开始就认识到这样几点：在过去的一些时期我们曾是敌人。今天我们有巨大的分歧。使我们走到一起的，是我们有超过这些分歧的共同利益。我们在讨论我们的分歧的时候，我们哪一方都不会在我们的原则上妥协。但是，虽然我们不能弥合我们之间的鸿沟，我们却能够设法搭一座桥，以便我们能够越过它进行会谈。
5. So, let us, in these next five days, start a long march together, not in lockstep, but on different roads leading to the same goal, the goal of building a world structure of peace and justice in which all may stand together with equal dignity and in which each nation, large of small, has a right to determine its own form of government, free of outside interference or domination. The world watches. The world listens. The world waits to see what we will do. What is the world? In a personal sense, I think of my eldest daughter whose birthday is today. As I think of her, I think of all the children in the world, in Asia, in Africa, in Europe, in the Americas, most of whom were born since the date of the foundation of the People's Republic of China.
5、因此，让我们在今后的五天里在一起开始一次长征吧，不是在一起迈步，而是在不同的道路上向同一目标前进。这个目标就是建立一个和平和正义的世界结构：在这个世界结构中，所有的人都可以在一起享有同等的尊严；在这个世界结构中，每个国家，不论大小，都有权利决定自己的政府形式，不受外来的干涉或统治。全世界在注视着。全世界在倾听着。全世界在等待着看我们将做些什么。这个世界是什么呢?就个人来讲，我想到我的大女儿，因为今天是她的生日。当我想到她的时候，我就想到全世界的儿童，想到亚洲、非洲、欧洲以及美洲的儿童，他们大多数都是在中华人民共和国成立以后出生的。
6. What legacy shall we leave our children? Are they destined to die for the hatreds which have plagued the old world, or are they destined to live because we have the Vision to build a new world?
6、我们将给我们的孩子们留下什么遗产呢?他们的命运是怀着对旧世界中的苦难的仇恨而死亡呢，还是由于我们有缔造一个新世界的远见而活下去呢?
7. There is no reason for us to be enemies. Neither of us seeks the territory of the other; neither of us seeks domination over the other; neither of us seeks to stretch out our hands and rule the world.
7、我们没有理由要成为敌人。我们哪一方都不企图取得对方的领土，我们哪一方都不企图统治对方，我们哪一方都不企图伸出手去统治世界。
8. Chairman Mao has written, "So many deeds cry out to be done, and always urgently; / The world rolls on, / Time presses. / Ten thousand years are too long, / Seize the day, seize the hour!" This is the hour. This is the day for our two peoples to rise to the heights of greatness which can build a new and a better world.
8、毛主席写过：“多少事，从来急；天地转，光阴迫。一万年太久，只争朝夕。”现在就是只争朝夕的时候了，是我们两国人民攀登那种可以缔造一个新的、更美好的世界的伟大事业的高峰的时候了。
9. In that spirit, I ask all of you present to join me in raising your glasses to Chairman Mao, to Prime Minister Chou, and to the friendship of the Chinese and American people which can lead to friendship and peace for all people in the world.
9、本着这种精神，我请求诸位同我一起举杯，为毛主席，为周总理，为能够导致全世界所有人民的友谊与和平的中国人民和美国人民之间的友谊，干杯。
