[…] Forty-​four Ame­ri­cans have now taken the pre­si­den­ti­al oath[1]. The words have been spo­ken du­ring ri­sing tides[2] of pro­spe­ri­ty and the still wa­ters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathe­ring clouds and ra­ging[3]storms.

At these mo­ments, Ame­ri­ca has car­ri­ed on not sim­ply be­cau­se of the skill or vi­si­on of those in high of­fice, but be­cau­se we, the people, have re­main­ed faith­ful to the ide­als of our for­be­a­rers[4], and true to our foun­ding do­cu­ments. So it has been. So it must be with this ge­ne­ra­ti­on of Ame­ri­cans.



That we are in the midst of cri­sis is now well un­der­stood. Our na­ti­on is at war, against a far-​reaching net­work of vi­o­lence and hat­red. Our eco­no­my is badly wea­ke­ned, a con­se­quence of greed and ir­re­spon­si­bi­li­ty on the part of some […].  Homes have been lost; jobs shed; busi­nesses shut­te­red. Our health care is too cost­ly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings fur­ther evi­den­ce that the ways we use en­er­gy streng­then our ad­versa­ries[5] and th­re­a­ten our pla­net. These are the in­di­ca­tors of cri­sis, sub­ject to data and sta­ti­stics.

Less me­a­su­ra­ble but no less pro­found is a sap­ping[6] of con­fi­dence across our land - a nag­ging fear that Ame­ri­ca's de­cli­ne[7] is in­evi­ta­ble[8], and that the next ge­ne­ra­ti­on must lower its sights[9]. […].



As for ever­y­whe­re we look, there is work to be done. The state of the eco­no­my calls for ac­tion, bold[10] and swift[11], and we will act […]. We will build the roads and bridges, the elec­tric grids and di­gi­tal lines that feed our com­mer­ce and bind us toge­ther. We will […] wield[12] tech­no­lo­gy's won­ders to raise health care's qua­li­ty and lower its cost. We will har­ness[13] the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our fac­to­ries […]. All this we can do. All this we will do. […].





God bless you. And God bless the United Sta­tes of Ame­ri­ca.



[1] pre­si­den­ti­al oath: Ant­s­eid eines Prä­si­den­ten

[2] tide: a re­gu­lar rise and fall in the level of the sea, cau­sed by the pull of the moon and sun

[3] ra­ging: auf­zie­hen­den

[4] for­be­a­rer: a per­son who you are de­scen­ded from, es­pe­cial­ly one who lived a long time ago

[5] ad­versa­ry: a per­son that sb. is op­po­sed to and com­pe­ting with in an ar­gu­ment or a batt­le

[6][6] to sap: to make sth./ sb. wea­ker; to de­s­troy sth.

[7] de­cli­ne: a con­ti­nuous de­crease in the num­ber, value, qua­li­ty etc. of sth.

[8] in­evi­ta­ble: that you can­not pre­vent or avoid

[9] to lower one’s sights: klei­ne­re Bröt­chen ba­cken

[10] bold: brave and con­fi­dent

[11] swift: doing sth. quick­ly

[12] to wield: to hold sth. ready to use it as a wea­pon or tool

[13] to har­ness: to con­trol and use the force to pro­du­ce power