文章来源：华盛顿邮报 财经十一人 译者：秦欣玥
Bill Clinton: George H.W. Bush’s Oval Office note to me revealed the heart of who he was
By Bill Clinton
December 1 at 10:03 AM
Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States.
On Jan. 20, 1993, I entered the Oval Office for the first time as president. As is the tradition, waiting for me was a note from my predecessor, George Herbert Walker Bush. It read:
1993年1月20日，我第一次进入总统办公室。按照传统，等待我的是前任总统乔治·赫伯特·沃克·布什的便条，上面写着：
Dear Bill,
亲爱的比尔，
When I walked into this office just now I felt the same sense of wonder and respect that I felt four years ago. I know you will feel that, too.
在我刚刚走进这间办公室时，我感受到了同四年前一样的那般奇妙和敬意。我知道你也会有同样的感受。
I wish you great happiness here. I never felt the loneliness some Presidents have described.
祝你在这里过得愉快。我从未感受到如一些总统描述的那般孤独。
There will be very tough times, made even more difficult by criticism you may not think is fair. I’m not a very good one to give advice; but just don’t let the critics discourage you or push you off course.
你会经历非常艰难的时期，尤其是受到你可能认为不公平的批评。我不擅长给别人提建议，但是千万不要让批评者阻挠你，或者把你推离正轨。
You will be our President when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well.
当你读到这张便条时，你将成为我们的总统。祝你一切顺利。祝你全家幸福。
Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you.
从现在起，你的成功就是我们国家的成功。我永远为你加油。
Good Luck — George
祝你好运-乔治
The Oval Office note that George H.W. Bush left for Bill Clinton. (Courtesy of Bill Clinton)
老布什给比尔·克林顿留了的便条。（由克林顿提供）
No words of mine or others can better reveal the heart of who he was than those he wrote himself. He was an honorable, gracious and decent man who believed in the United States, our Constitution, our institutions and our shared future. And he believed in his duty to defend and strengthen them, in victory and defeat. He also had a natural humanity, always hoping with all his heart that others’ journeys would include some of the joy that his family, his service and his adventures gave him.
我或其他人的描述都无法比他自己的话语更能揭示他的内心。他是一个值得尊敬、有礼貌、正派的人，他相信美国，相信我们的宪法、我们的制度和我们共同的未来。他坚信自己有责任捍卫和加强他们，无论是在在胜利还是失败的时候。他也是一个天性善良的人，总是全心全意地希望别人的生活也会充满快乐，就像他的家庭，他的工作和他的经历所给予他的一样。
His friendship has been one of the great gifts of my life. From Indonesia to Houston, from the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast to Kennebunkport, Maine — where just a few months ago we shared our last visit, as he was surrounded by his family but clearly missing Barbara — I cherished every opportunity I had to learn and laugh with him. I just loved him.
他的友谊是我一生中最伟大的礼物之一。从印尼到休斯敦，从卡特里娜飓风肆虐的海湾海岸到缅因州的肯尼邦克港——就在几个月前，我们在那里分享了我们的最后一次访问，他被他的家人包围，但显然失去了芭芭拉（布什的妻子芭芭拉于今年4月辞世——译注）。我珍惜每一个向他学习、一起欢笑的机会。我就是爱他。
Many people were surprised at our relationship, considering we were once political adversaries. Despite our considerable differences, I had admired many of his accomplishments as president, especially his foreign policy decisions in managing America’s response to the end of the Cold War and his willingness to work with governors of both parties to establish national education goals. Even more important, though he could be tough in a political fight, he was in it for the right reasons: People always came before politics, patriotism before partisanship. To the end, we knew we would never agree on everything, and we agreed that was okay. Honest debate strengthens democracy.
考虑到我们曾经是政治对手，许多人对我们的关系感到惊讶。尽管我们之间有很大分歧，我还是钦佩他作为总统的许多成就，尤其是他在冷战结束后做出的外交决策，以及他在制定国家教育目标时所展现出的与来自两个党派的州长们合作的意愿。更重要的是，尽管他在政治斗争中可能很强硬，但是他只有在有正确的理由时才这样做：在他心里，人总是优先于政治，国家利益总是优先于党派利益。最后，我们知道我们永远不会在每件事上达成一致，并且我们同意这没关系。开诚布公的辩论有助于维系民主政治。
While we maintained a respectful, friendly relationship throughout my presidency, it was only when President George W. Bush asked us to jointly spearhead American relief efforts in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and again after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that we got to really know each other. When we met with children who lost their parents in the tsunami, he was moved almost to tears when they gave us drawings they’d made to capture their pain and slow recovery in grief counseling. When we were asked to speak together at Tulane’s graduation in 2006, I saw his genuine feeling for the students, many of whom had suffered in the flooding of New Orleans, and others who had shown heroism and love in caring for their neighbors. “Each of you here has inspired me,” he told them. “When I look at our world, the good I see far outweighs the bad, which maybe explains why I am a real optimist about the future that you all will be facing.”
虽然我们在我担任总统期间一直保持着尊重、友好的关系，但只有当乔治·W·布什总统（小布什）在2004年印度洋海啸之后和2005年卡特里娜飓风过后，要求我们共同领导美国救援工作时，我们才真正了解了彼此。当我们见到在海啸中失去父母的孩子时，当他们给我们图画时，他几乎流下了眼泪，这些图画记录着他们的痛苦和在接受心理疏导后的缓慢恢复。2006年，在杜兰大学的毕业典礼上，当我们被邀请一起讲话时，我看到了他对学生们的真诚感情，他们中的许多人在新奥尔良的洪水中受苦，还有些人在照顾邻居时表现出英雄主义和爱。“你们每个人都鼓舞了我，”他告诉他们。“当我审视我们的世界时，我看到的善远胜于恶，这也许就是我对你们所有人将面对的未来都抱有真正的乐观态度的原因。”
Growing old did not rob him of his optimism or his love of competition and adventure. In his book of letters, there’s a wonderful one to his family about getting older, in which he crows about driving his speedboat off the Maine coast. “Still want to compete. I still drive Fidelity II fast — very fast. My best so far — 63 mph in a slight chop with one [Secret Service] agent on board.” I took more than one ride in that boat with him over the years. It was fun but not an experience for the faint of heart. It was the same driving spirit, coupled with heartfelt patriotism, which led him to volunteer for the Navy on his 18th birthday instead of attending Yale, becoming one of the youngest American pilots to get his wings. Even when he was later shot out of the sky, the sole survivor of his close-knit crew, he never feared to go up again — famously learning to skydive at 75.
衰老并没有使他失去乐观精神，也没有使他失去对竞争和冒险的热爱。在他的书信集中，有一封写给家人的信绝好地展现出了他对于衰老的态度。在信中，他对自己在缅因州海岸驾驶快艇的成绩颇为自豪。“我还是想比赛。我仍然可以把“忠诚2号”开得很快：63英里每小时，这是我有史以来的最好成绩，而且当时还有些小碎浪，船上还有一名特工。”这些年来我曾不止一次地和他驾船。这很有趣，但可不是胆小鬼能享受的。同样的驾驶精神，加上热诚的爱国精神，使他在18岁生日时自愿放弃去耶鲁大学报道的机会，而是加入了海军，成为最年轻的美国飞行员之一。他后来在执行飞行任务时被击中，成为同一批亲密战友中唯一的幸存者，但即便如此，他也从来没有对天空产生恐惧。众所周知，他在75岁高龄时仍决定学习跳伞。
After the war, he took a leap of faith by staking his and his family’s future in the Texas oil business and eventually got into politics. Fifty years ago this spring, as a congressman representing Houston, he voted for the Fair Housing Act of 1968, going against his nearly perfect record of conservative votes in Washington. When he returned to Houston, he held a town hall to explain his vote to a hostile crowd who thought he’d lost his mind. He believed that he could convince them it was the right thing to do, as long as they would hear him out. That evening, at least, he was right. When he was finished talking he got a standing ovation.
战后，他信心十足地以自己和家人的未来为赌注投在德克萨斯州的石油生意上，并最终进入政界。五十年前的那个春天，作为代表休斯敦的国会议员，他投票赞成1968年的《公平住房法》，这与他在华盛顿近乎完美的保守派投票记录背道而驰。当他回到休斯敦时，他在市政厅里向一群认为他已经失去理智的人解释他的投票。他相信他能说服他们这是正确的做法，只要他们愿意听他的话。他的想法至少在那天晚上应验了。当他讲完话后，众人起立为他鼓掌。
Given what politics looks like in America and around the world today, it’s easy to sigh and say George H.W. Bush belonged to an era that is gone and never coming back — where our opponents are not our enemies, where we are open to different ideas and changing our minds, where facts matter and where our devotion to our children’s future leads to honest compromise and shared progress. I know what he would say: “Nonsense. It’s your duty to get that America back.”
考虑到当今美国和全世界的政治形势，我们很容易叹息说乔治·H·W·布什所处的时代已经一去不复返。那时我们的对手还不是我们的敌人，我们还愿意接受不同的观点，改变我们的想法，那时事实还很重要，我们还会为了孩子们的未来而做出真诚的让步并共享进步的成果。我知道他会说：“这没关系，让美国回来是你们的责任。”
We should all give thanks for George H.W. Bush’s long, good life and honor it by searching, as he always did, for the most American way forward.
我们都应该感谢并尊重乔治·H·W·布什漫长而美好的一生，并且像他一贯做的那样，继续寻找最符合美国利益的前进道路。
（内容只代表作者个人观点，不代表论坛立场）
亚洲浪潮，博鳌视野
“立足亚洲，面向世界”
传递论坛最新动态，促进亚洲深度合作
全球重要对话的传达者，亚洲共同发展的瞭望者。
,
