1981 年，吉米·卡特（Jimmy Carter) 和杰拉尔德·福特 (Gerald Ford) 在空军一号上。他们的友谊始于这次埃及之行。图片来源：Dirck Halstead / Getty Images
译者按：
几天前，小张老师翻译了福特总统为卡特总统写的悼词，有读者询问卡特总统为福特总统所写的悼词。
在葬礼上，许多回忆令人动容，那种情感是在追忆往事时，笑声突然爆发，而泪花却同时闪烁眼眶。
为此，小张老师特别整理了卡特总统为福特总统所致的悼词，并翻译成中文，同时附上原文，供读者们进行中英文对照学习。如果译文中有不妥之处，欢迎大家指正，并分享您的见解与体会。
2025年1月9日，史蒂夫·福特（Steven Ford) 在卡特国葬上发表了感人的悼词，悼词是他父亲、美国第38任总统杰拉尔德·福特(Gerald Ford)多年前准备的。图片来源：公共领域
2007年1月3日，在密歇根州大急流城格雷斯圣公会教堂，吉米·卡特为他的老友福特总统致悼词。图片来源：公共领域
“为了我自己和我们的国家，我要感谢我的前任为治愈我们的土地所做的一切。”
这是我作为总统说的第一句话。我羞于承认的是，这句话赢得的掌声超过了我就职演讲中其他任何一句话。
（笑声）
当你与某人竞选总统时，当你站在他的立场上，承担他曾肩负的责任时，你会对这个人有深刻的认识。而当你们卸下高官的重担，怀着超越党派的爱国精神和服务理念携手合作时，你或许会领悟更多。
在准备这篇悼词时，我的员工和我的日记揭示了一个清单：在我们共同承担领导责任的25年里，杰瑞和我合作过超过25个项目。
几年前，我们都被《纽约客》的一幅漫画逗乐了。画中一个小男孩抬头看着父亲，说道：“爸爸，我长大后想当前总统。”
（笑声）
杰瑞和我常常感慨，在过去的四分之一个世纪里，我们离开白宫后最大的幸福之一，就是彼此之间建立了深厚的个人友谊。
在我们激烈的政治竞选中，正如唐刚才提醒我的那样，我们习惯性地称对方为“我杰出的对手”。为了我自己的利益，在我担任总统期间，我让他始终了解我在国内外所采取的每一步行动。事实上，他几乎每个月都会从我的白宫幕僚长或国家安全顾问那里收到详细简报。而每次他来华盛顿地区，我都会邀请他到白宫共进午餐。
我们一直珍视那些如今可能已成历史的两党合作的美好记忆。
杰瑞·福特和我有许多共同点。我们都曾在美国海军服役——他在战舰上，我在潜艇上，担任初级军官。事实上，这是我的职业生涯开端。我们都很高兴自己意外地晋升为总司令。
我们各自有三个儿子，而后我们的祈祷得到了回应……
（笑声）
……我们都有了一个女儿。
我们也都娶了美丽、聪明且极为独立的妻子。
（笑声）
在我担任总统期间，我非常珍视他的中肯建议。他常常，尽管我必须承认，有时显得不太情愿背离他所在政党的主流意见，来支持我解决一些最棘手的挑战。
这些挑战中有许多正是他为我打下了基础，比如巴拿马运河条约、与苏联的核武器控制、与中国的外交正常化以及戴维营协议。
事实上，在从戴维营飞回华盛顿的直升机上，埃及总统安瓦尔·萨达特、以色列总理梅纳赫姆·贝京和我一起给杰瑞打了电话，告诉他我们已经达成了以色列与埃及之间的和平协议。
福特总统和我还共同致力于推动苏联履行赫尔辛基协议中有关人权的承诺。这一协议赋予了铁幕后勇敢的异见人士力量，并帮助从内部瓦解了苏联的暴政。
这种相互尊重在我们共同前往埃及参加安瓦尔·萨达特总统葬礼的旅途中，发展成了宝贵的私人友谊。我们一边哀叹意外落败的总统候选人如何筹集资金为自己的图书馆奠基的困境，一边建立起了彼此的私人联系。
（笑声）
卡特：或许，这就是我们此后一生最紧密相连的原因。
（笑声）
在卡特中心成立的早期阶段，杰瑞作为联合主席，参与了所有重要会议和项目。我也从未拒绝帮助他规划卸任后的生活安排。
我们非常享受彼此的私人陪伴。无论是在汽车里还是飞机上，我们常常很不情愿到达目的地，因为我们珍惜在一起的时光。
顺便提一句，我们最成功却少为人知的合作之一，便是如何应对数百份邀请的难题——这些邀请总是声称“所有总统都将参加某项活动”。我们私下通电话后，会迅速告知对方：至少有两人不会参加。
（笑声）
昨天，在从华盛顿飞往这里的航班上，罗莎琳和我感到非常激动，因为杰瑞的一个儿子特意告诉我们，他从父亲那里得到的最大礼物便是对耶稣基督的信仰。
确实，杰瑞和我在宗教信仰方面有着共同的承诺。我们不仅敬拜同一位救世主，而且以各自的方式，努力在自己的教派内推动和解与团结。
我们始终铭记使徒保罗的教诲：基督徒不应因表面上重要但实际上无关紧要的问题而产生分歧——包括性取向或女性在教会中的角色等问题。
我们深信，无论是圣公会信徒、浸信会信徒，还是其他教派的信徒，都应在同一个信念下和睦相处。我们因上帝的恩典而得救，这源于我们对耶稣基督的信仰，这是最为重要的真理。
我一生中最自豪的时刻之一，发生在白宫 200 周年纪念活动上。当时，两位著名的历史学家宣称，福特-卡特之间的友谊，是美国历史上两位总统之间最亲密的友谊。
这种深厚的友谊不仅存在于我们之间，也延伸到了我们的配偶身上。贝蒂致力于解决药物和酒精滥用问题，而罗莎琳专注于精神健康领域的挑战。当这两位女性联手前往国会时，几乎没有哪位议员能够抵挡住她们联合游说的影响力。
（笑声）
我们四个人学会了彼此相爱，形成了难以割舍的纽带。
最后，请允许我代表罗莎琳、我自己，以及我们的孩子杰克、奇普、杰弗里和艾米，还有我们的 11 个孙辈和 1 个曾孙，向贝蒂、迈克、杰克、史蒂夫、苏珊，以及你们的大家庭表达我们最深切的同情和真挚的爱。
昨天和今天，数以万计的人聚集在高速公路两旁，向杰瑞·福特总统表达他们共同的敬爱与怀念。
回首过去，我发现，没有什么比我在近 30 年前说过的一句话更能完美表达我的心情。为了我自己和我们的国家，我要感谢我的前任为治愈我们的土地所做的一切。
原文：
"For myself and for our nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land."Those were the first words I spoke as president. And I still hate to admit that they received more applause than any other words in my inaugural address.
(LAUGHTER)
You learn a lot about a man when you run against him for president, and when you stand in his shoes, and assume the responsibilities that he has borne so well, and perhaps even more after you both lay down the burdens of high office and work together in a nonpartisan spirit of patriotism and service.
My staff and my diary notes, as I prepared for this eulogy, reveal a list of more than 25 different projects on which Jerry and I have shared leadership responsibilities.
He and I were both amused by a "New Yorker" cartoon a couple years ago. This little boy is looking up at his father. And he says, "Daddy, when I grow up, I want to be a former president."
(LAUGHTER)
Jerry and I frequently agreed that one of the greatest blessings that we had, after we left the White House during the last quarter-century was the intense personal friendship that bound us together.
During our closely contested political campaign, as Don just reminded me, we habitually referred to each other as "my distinguished opponent." And, for my own benefit, while I was president, I kept him fully informed about everything that I did in the domestic or international arena.
In fact, he was given a thorough briefing almost every month from the head of my White House staff or my national security adviser. And Jerry never came to the Washington area without being invited to have lunch with me at the White House.
We always cherished those memories of now perhaps a long-lost bipartisan interrelationship.
Jerry Ford and I shared a lot. We both served in the U.S. Navy, he on battleships, I on submarines, as junior officers. In fact, it was my profession. And we both enjoyed our unexpected promotion to commander in chief.Each of us had three sons. And then our prayers were answered...
(LAUGHTER)
... and we had a daughter.And we both married women who were good-looking, smart, and extremely independent.
(LAUGHTER)
As president, I relished his sound advice. And he often, although, I must say, reluctantly, departed from the prevailing opinion of his political party to give me support on some of my most difficult challenges.
For many of these, of course, he had helped to lay the foundation, including the Panama Canal treaties, nuclear armaments control with the Soviet Union, normalized diplomatic relations with China, and also the Camp David accords.
In fact, on a helicopter in flight from Camp David back to Washington, President Anwar Sadat, Prime Minister Menachem Begin and I made one telephone call, to Gerald Ford, to tell him that we had reached peace between Israel and Egypt.
President Ford and I also shared a commitment to force the Soviet Union to comply with its promise to respect human rights within the Helsinki agreement, which gave strength to brave dissidents behind the Iron Curtain, and helped to undermine Soviet tyranny from within.
Our mutual respect, which I have described, blossomed into a valued personal friendship during our shared trip to attend the funeral of President Anwar Sadat in Egypt. We formed a personal bond while lamenting on the difficulty of unexpectedly defeated candidates trying to raise money to build presidential libraries.
(LAUGHTER)
That's what bound us together most firmly, I think, for the rest of our days.
(LAUGHTER)
In the early days of the Carter Center, Jerry joined me as co-chairman in all of our important conferences and projects. And I never declined an opportunity to help him with his own post- presidential plans.
We enjoyed each other's private company. And he and I commented often that, when we were traveling somewhere in an automobile or airplane, we hated to reach our destination, because we enjoyed the private times that we had together.
More -- one of our most successful and little-known joint efforts, by the way, was agreeing on how to respond to the literally hundreds of invitations from people who claimed that all the presidents were going to participate in an event. And, after a private telephone conversation, we would quickly let them know that at least two of us would not be attending.
(LAUGHTER)
Yesterday, on the flight here from Washington, Rosalynn and I were thrilled when one of his sons came to tell us that the greatest gift he received from his father was his faith in Jesus Christ.
It is true that Jerry and I shared a common commitment to our religious faith, not just in worshipping the same savior, but in attempting, in our own personal way, to achieve reconciliation within our respective denominations.
We took to heart the admonition of the Apostle Paul that Christians should not be divided over seemingly important, but tangential issues, including sexual preferences and the role of women in the church, things like that.
We both felt that Episcopalians, Baptists and others should live together in harmony, within the adequate and common belief that we are saved by the grace of God through our faith in Jesus Christ, that we are saved by the grace of God through our faith in Jesus Christ.
One of my proudest moments was at the commemoration of the 200th birthday of the White House, when two noted historians both declared that the Ford-Carter friendship was the most intensely personal between any two presidents in history.
This close relationship extended to our spouses, as Betty worked on drug and alcohol abuse, and Rosalynn addressed the challenges of mental illness. And, when those two women descended on Washington together, few members of Congress could resist their combined lobbying assault.
(LAUGHTER)
The four of us learned to love each other.
In closing, let me extend, on behalf of Rosalynn and me and Jack and Chip and Jeffrey and Amy, and our 11 grandchildren, and one great- grandson, our personal sympathy and love to Betty and Mike and Jack and Steve and Susan, and all of your extended family.
The tens of thousands of people who lined the highway yesterday and today were expressing this mutual love which we share for President Jerry Ford.
I still don't know any better way to express it than the words I used almost exactly 30 years ago. For myself and for our nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he did to heal our land.
英文原文来源：
https://www.cartercenter.org/news/editorials_speeches/ford_eulogy.html
请参看小张老师所写的有关卡特总统的其他文章：
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