公众人物毕业演讲第398期:奥巴马2012年哥伦比亚大学毕业演讲(16)

 　　And this little old lady raised her hand and asked Is this where the bingo game is? It was a disaster.

　　有一位瘦小的老太太举起了手 问道宾果游戏是在这里吗真是糟糕透了

　　Nobody showed up My first big community meeting, nobody showed up And later, the volunteers I worked with told me.

　　没有人来我的第一个社区大会 没有人到场后来 和我一起工作的志愿人员对我说

　　That's it, we're quitting They'd been doing this for two years even before I had arrived They had nothing to show for it.

　　够了 我们不干了他们在我来之前已经干了两年之久他们觉得没有任何成就可言

　　And i'll be honest, I felt pretty discouraged as well I didn't know what I was doing I thought about quitting.

　　说实话 我也感到相当气馁我不知道我在做什么我想过不干了

　　And as we were talking I looked outside and saw some young boys playing in a vacant¹ lot across the street.

　　当我们交谈的时候我往外边看了看 看到一群年轻的男孩在马路对面的空地上玩耍

　　And they were just throwing rocks up at a boarded building They had nothing better to do late at night, just throwing rocks.

　　他们正对着一座用板子钉起来的建筑物投掷石块他们百无聊赖 在深夜 只有扔石头玩

　　And I said to the volunteers Before you quit, answer one question What will happen to those boys if you quit?.

　　我对那些志愿人员说在你们退出之前 先回答一个问题如果你们不干了那些男孩会怎么样

　　Who will fight for them if we don't? Who will give them a fair shot.

　　如果我们不为他们着想还有谁会为他们奋斗呢如果我们走了

　　If we leave? And one by one, the volunteers decided² not to quit We went back to those neighborhoods and we kept at it.

　　还有谁会给他们一个公平的机会呢志愿者们一个接一个地决定不放弃我们回到那些街区 继续坚持工作

　　We registered³ new voters and we set up after-school programs and we fought for new jobs.

　　我们给新选民登记我们安排课后活动我们争取新的就业机会

　　And helped people live lives with some measure of dignity And we sustained⁴ ourselves with those small victories We didn't set the world on fire.

　　并帮助人们活得更有尊严我们用那些小小的胜利鼓励自己我们并没有做什么惊天动地的事

1 vacant   

adj.未被占用的，空着的；空缺的

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• He stared into space with a vacant expression.他茫然地凝视着天空。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 registered   

adj.登记的，注册的

参考例句：

• Ships were registered abroad to circumvent employment and safety regulation. 船只在外国注册以逃避有关雇佣和安全的规定。
• In former times, only property owners could be registered as voters. 从前，只有有财产的人才能登记作选民。

4 sustained   

adj.持久的，持续的v.维持( sustain的过去式和过去分词 )；支撑；忍受；长期保持

参考例句：

• Without correct leadership, the enthusiasm of the masses cannot be sustained. 没有正确的领导，群众的积极性就不可能持久。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He has sustained a great loss by the death of his father. 他父亲的去世使他蒙受巨大的损失。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》