当地时间11月16日，美国前国务卿希拉里在儿童保护基金会活动上发表演讲，这是她发表败选演说后首次在公开场合演讲。她对着数百名听众表示：“坦白讲，今晚来到这里，对我而言真不是简单的事。”“过去这一周我好几次这么想，以后只要捧着好书或抱着狗，永远不想再踏出门一步了。”

Hillary Clinton's First Speech Since Conceding

Thank you. [applause]

Thank you, thank you. Oh, it is so wonderful to be here with all of you on behalf of the Children’s Defense Fund. I was listening backstage as Marian went through the 45 years that we have known each other and even reminded me of some things that I had not recalled, namely that this event was the very first event that my husband and I went to after he was elected president, and so it’s especially poignant[1] and meaningful to me to be here again with all of you. And I want to start by congratulating the terrific young people that we are celebrating tonight. [applause]

[1]poignant [ˈpɔɪnjənt]

causing or having a very sharp feeling of sadness 令人痛苦的，酸楚的；深深打动人的

The photograph awakens poignant memories of happier days.

照片唤起了对美好时光的深情追忆。

You will hear more about each of them because each has faced painful challenges, violence and poverty, abandonment, but they never gave up. They never stopped reaching, never stopped dreaming and, yes, they have beaten the odds[克服困难;战胜挑战;获得出乎意料的成功].

They call Troy the little poet who could. He is an artist on the basketball court and a flourishing writer in the classroom, and he dreams of becoming a filmmaker. Bethany lived in one foster home[寄养家庭] after another, but with the help of a wonderful teacher and her own determination, she is thriving and hopes to become a doctor, so she can care for others.

Carlos left a difficult childhood in Guatemala[危地马拉(中美洲西北部一国家)], made it to America all by himself. Then he took a second journey, making it all the way to college, where he is studying to become an engineer. Janet’s secret weapon is her beautiful voice and her musical talent. Music has helped her overcome every obstacle that life has thrown in her path.

And Yuchabel persevered through domestic violence at home and bullying at school and found her voice producing a student television show at school, and now she has set her sights on becoming a journalist. These fearless, generous, openhearted, determined young people represent a rising generation that should give us all much hope for the future.

And they represent the continuing commitment of the Children’s Defense Fund and Marian Wright Edelman[儿童保护基金创始人].

Now, I will admit, coming here tonight wasn’t the easiest thing for me. There have been a few times this past week when all I wanted to do was just to curl up with a good book or our dogs and never leave the house again.

“坦白讲，今晚来到这里，对我而言真不是简单的事。”“过去这一周我好几次这么想，以后只要捧着好书或抱着狗，永远不想再踏出门一步了。”

But, if there is anyone who knows how to pick yourself up[振作起来] and get back on your feet and get to work, it is Marian. [applause] She has been doing it all her life, and she has been helping the rest of us do it too.

“如果要说有什么人能够了解在失败后如何振作起来并重回工作岗位，这个人一定是玛丽安。在整个人生中她一直是这么做的，并帮助其他人一起振作。”

I am as inspired by Marian today as I was the first time I met her 45 years ago. And she told the story—I was a young law student, I had lots of hopes and expectations about what a law degree would enable me to do. I had the words of my Methodist[循道宗信徒] faith ringing in my ears: “do all the good you can for all the people you can in all the ways you can as long as ever you can.”

She was the crusading[2] legal activist, also a graduate of Yale Law School, and she was translating her faith into a life devoted to children, service and social justice. Observing that, being part of that, is one of the greatest gifts anyone has ever given me. Because I often thought about Marian’s journey, about the stony roads she walked, the bitter rods she endured, and how she never lost her faith and kept her eyes on the prize.

[2]crusade [kruː'seɪd]（v.）

to make an effort to achieve something that you believe in strongly 从事某运动；为达到某理想而奋斗

She crusaded against sex and violence on television.

她致力于反对电视节目中的色情和暴力。

I think of taking the bar exam[律师资格考试] in Mississippi, the first black woman ever to do so, and then opening offices for the NAACP[全国有色人种协进会(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)] and a head start program for children who desperately needed it. I think of her with Robert Kennedy in a tiny shack[小木屋] in the , opening his eyes to the realities of poverty in America. I think of her with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., starting the Poor People’s Campaign and dreaming of an America of equality and opportunity.

You have to look at Marian’s life and ask, “How did she beat the odds when so many gave up the hopes of those early days?” For Marian, it has always been about children and families. That’s what matters, and that’s what has kept her going, helping to open public schools to children with disabilities in the 1970s, an effort I was honored to be part of.

Working to expand Medicaid[医疗补助制度(美国政府向贫困者提供医疗保险)] in the 1980s to cover more pregnant women and children in need. Standing with me and others in the 1990s to create the Children’s Health Insurance Program, improve foster care and create early head start, fighting in recent years to build a bipartisan[两党的;涉及两党的] movement to dismantle[3] the school-to-prison pipeline and reform our criminal justice system[刑事司法体系], especially for juveniles[青少年], and spending countless hours mentoring and training the next generation of leaders and activists at Haley Farm.

[3]dismantle：to get rid of a system or organization, usually over a period of time 废除，取消；解散

Unions accuse the government of dismantling the National Health Service.

工会指责政府裁撤了国家卫生署。

Under Marian’s leadership, the Children’s Defense Fund works to give every child a healthy start, a head start, a fair start, a safe start and a moral start in life. And I cannot think of a more noble or necessary mission. No matter what the setbacks, she has always believed in the words of Dr. King often repeated by President Obama, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it tends toward justice.”(LR注:搜到两种翻译:所有的道德表现最终会维护正义。/ 道义的苍穹长又长，但它终将落向正义。)

Now sometimes it can feel awfully long—believe me I know, but I also know it does bend. It bends towards justice because people like Marian and so many of you, and there are people in this audience I’ve had the privilege of working with and admiring for so many decades. You refuse to stop pushing and when you get knocked down, you get back up. I often quote Marian when she says that service is the rent we pay for living. Well, you don’t get to stop paying rent just because things don’t go your way.

“公共服务是我们赖以生存的支柱，你不能因为事情不尽如人意就不为社会做贡献。”

I know many of you are deeply disappointed about the results of the election. I am too, more than I can ever express, but as I said last week, our campaign was never about one person or even one election. It was about the country we love and about building an America that is hopeful, inclusive and bighearted. [applause]

“我知道你们对结果很失望。我也是，这种失望难以用语言表达。但大选的意义从来就不只是一场选举或是一个人的胜利。而是关乎我们所热爱的国家，关乎建立一个充满希望、包容和宽厚的美国。”

I didn’t get into public service to hold high office. [applause]

“我参与公共服务，不是为了位居高位。”

Forty-five years ago, that would have seemed an absolute incredibly wrong-headed[判断错误的;执迷不悟的] view, but I did decide to be an activist to use my law degree to help kids. Every child deserves to have the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential, and I believe the measure of any society is how we treat our children.

And as we move forward into a new—and in many ways, uncertain—future, I think that must be the test for America and for ourselves. Despite the progress—and we have made progress under President Obama—more than 31 million children still live at or near poverty in America. And I hoped to have had the opportunity to build on the progress that President Obama has made because I know that we are stronger together when we are lifting each other up.

未完待续...

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希拉里败选演讲:为理想奋斗绝对值得

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