Thank you. Thank you, my friends. Thank you for coming here on this beautiful Arizona evening.
感谢各位。非常感谢你们,我的朋友们。感谢你们在这个美好的夜晚,来到这里。
My friends, we have -- we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly.
我的朋友们,我们已经,已经走完了这次漫长的旅程。美国人民已经说出了他们的决定,说得非常清楚。
A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Sen. Barack Obama to congratulate him.
刚才,我非常荣幸地给奥巴马参议员打电话,向他表示祝贺。
To congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.
祝贺他当选为这个国家的下一任总统,这个我们两个都无比热爱的国家的下一任总统。
我明白这次选举对于非洲裔美国人的特殊意义
This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight.
I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Sen. Obama believes that, too.
我始终深信不疑,对于任何一个勤奋努力、勇于开拓的人,美国都会给予他机会。奥巴马参议员也深信这一点。
But we both recognize that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.
A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters.
一个世纪前,西奥多·罗斯福总统邀请Booker T. Washington(注:黑人教育家),到白宫共进晚餐。全国各地有许多人,认为这是一个骇人听闻的事件。
America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States.
These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.
我们的国家正处在艰难时刻。奥巴马参议员将领导我们迎接挑战。今晚,我向他保证,我将尽我所能帮助他,
I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.
It is natural. It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.
We fought -- we fought as hard as we could. And though we fell short, the failure is mine, not yours.
我们努力过了,尽了我们所能。虽然最后我们没有成功,但是失败是我的,不是你们的。
I am so deeply grateful to all of you for the great honor of your support and for all you have done for me. I wish the outcome had been different, my friends.
The road was a difficult one from the outset, but your support and friendship never wavered. I cannot adequately express how deeply indebted I am to you.
I don't know -- I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election. I'll leave that to others to determine. Every candidate makes mistakes, and I'm sure I made my share of them. But I won't spend a moment of the future regretting what might have been.
This campaign was and will remain the great honor of my life, and my heart is filled with nothing but gratitude for the experience and to the American people for giving me a fair hearing before deciding that Sen. Obama and my old friend Sen. Joe Biden should have the honor of leading us for the next four years.
Tonight -- tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Sen. Obama -- whether they supported me or Sen. Obama.
I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.