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Bullfighting
斗牛
Bad sport?
斗牛是糟粕运动吗？
A bloody tradition is under attack.
一个血腥的传统正在遭受攻击。
Bocinero, half a tonne and dull black, impressed the crowd more than the two bulls who had come and died before him.
公牛博西内罗重达半吨，毛色乌黑暗沉，比起之前上场并被它杀死的两头公牛，它给观众留下的印象更为深刻。
He hooked his left horn under the right leg of Tomas Rufo, the matador, who landed nearby.
它用左边的牛角钩住了斗牛士托马斯·鲁弗的右腿，把他摔倒在附近。
The bull pressed his advantage, rolling Mr Rufo several times before other toreros jumped in to distract him.
公牛乘胜追击，在其他斗牛士跳进来分散它的注意力之前把鲁弗滚了好几圈。
Mr Rufo was soon up limping, shaking off his pain, and before long Bocinero fell under his sword.
鲁弗很快就站起来一瘸一拐地走着，忘掉身上的疼痛，不久博西内罗就倒在了他的剑下。
He died within a minute.
它在一分钟内就死掉了。
(To your correspondent it felt like a very long minute.)
（对本文记者来说，这一分钟感觉很漫长。）
Bullfighting, defying many predictions, still lives.
尽管很多人预言其将消失，但斗牛仍然存在。
Bocinero was killed in a sold-out stadium at Madrid’s annual San Isidro festival, which honours the city’s patron saint.
博西内罗在马德里的一个座无虚席的体育场内被杀害，当时正是一年一度的圣伊西德罗节，这个节日是为了纪念马德里市的守护神。
Every year on May 16th Spanish bullrings observe a moment of silence for Joselito, one of the greatest matadors of all time, killed in the ring in 1920.
每年的5月16日，西班牙的斗牛场都会为有史以来最伟大的斗牛士之一何塞利托默哀片刻，他于1920年在斗牛场中丧生。
Danger hangs over the spectacle at all times.
危险始终笼罩着这场奇观。
A statue of Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin in 1928, stands outside Madrid’s bullring, as thanks from all the fighters who survived severe injuries due to modern medicine.
亚历山大·弗莱明于1928年发现了青霉素，马德里斗牛场外矗立着他的雕像，这是所有受益于现代医学而从重伤中幸存下来的斗牛士们对他的感谢。
The ritual of bullfighting has changed little since Joselito’s demise.
自何塞利托去世后，斗牛的传统几乎没有改变。
That familiarity and tradition are part of the spectacle’s appeal: passes with the cape to test and tire, spear-jabs from mounted picadores, the placement of barbed shafts in the bull’s upper back by banderilleros and then the matador’s passes with the red muleta cape before the killing blow.
那种熟悉感和传统性是这场表演的部分吸引力所在：用披风试探和激怒公牛，骑马的斗牛士用长矛刺戳公牛，持矛斗牛士将带刺的短矛扎入公牛的背部，然后斗牛士用红色的穆莱塔披风逗引公牛，之后给它致命一击。
Bullfighting is practised in eight countries.
八个国家有斗牛。
It is not just popular in Spain but in parts of Latin America, too.
斗牛不仅在西班牙很受欢迎，在拉丁美洲的部分地区也很受欢迎。
Mexico City has the biggest bullring in the world.
墨西哥城拥有世界上最大的斗牛场。
But those intent on fighting bullfighting are becoming more emboldened.
但是那些一心想要打击斗牛的人变得更加勇敢无畏。
On May 28th Colombia approved a national ban on bullfighting; it will soon be signed into law by Colombia’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro.
5月28日，哥伦比亚批准了一项全国性的斗牛禁令，哥伦比亚左翼总统古斯塔沃·佩特罗很快将签署该禁令使之成为法律。
This year Mexico City’s season went ahead only after a judicial decision banning it was overturned.
今年，在一项禁止斗牛的司法裁决被推翻后，墨西哥城的斗牛季才得以继续进行。
Protesters stopped traffic with signs reading, “It’s not art. It’s torture.”
抗议者们举着写有“这不是艺术，这是折磨”的标语牌阻断了交通。
Five of Mexico’s 32 states have outlawed it.
墨西哥的32个州中有5个州已宣布其为非法。
In May Ernest Urtasun of Sumar, Spain’s far-left party and a junior partner in the government, announced the cancellation of the national bullfighting prize.
5月，西班牙极左翼政党及西班牙政府的初级合作伙伴“统一党”的欧内斯特·乌尔塔松宣布取消全国斗牛奖。
“People understand less and less that animal torture is practised, and that prizes are given for it,” he said.
“人们越来越不了解这是在折磨动物，而且还为此颁发奖项。”他说。
In other words bullfighting has left the sporting arena and entered a political one.
换句话说，斗牛已经走出了体育竞技场，进入了政治舞台。
In Spain voters on the left increasingly want bullfighting banned, while those on the right want it not only to stay legal but to be subsidised by the state.
在西班牙，左翼选民越来越希望禁止斗牛，而右翼选民则不仅希望斗牛保持合法，还希望国家给予补贴。
It is not quite, “Tell me what you think about the bulls, and I’ll tell you what you think about Palestine,” says David Mejia, a columnist for the conservative Spanish newspaper El Mundo who is critical of the Socialist government but is also against bullfighting.
这并非是“告诉我你对斗牛的看法，我就会告诉你你对巴勒斯坦的看法。”西班牙保守派报纸《世界报》专栏作家大卫·梅希亚说，他批评社会党政府，但也反对斗牛。
Yet tastes have changed from a decade ago, when it was considered a more acceptable tradition.
然而，人们的品味已经和十年前不同了，当时斗牛被认为是一种比较可以接受的传统。
Remaining left-wing supporters today are older and rural.
如今剩下的左翼支持者年龄较大，且来自农村。
El Pais, Spain’s centre-left newspaper, does not cover boxing, considering it both brutal and sordid, but in deference to remaining left-leaning aficionados, it does cover los toros.
西班牙中左翼报纸《国家报》不报道拳击，认为拳击既残酷又肮脏，但为了顺应仍然喜爱斗牛的左翼人士，它会报道斗牛。
Bullfighting belongs to the pueblo, the broad masses, says Vicente Zabala de la Serna, who writes about bullfighting for El Mundo, and thinks it is a shame for the left to criticise it.
为《世界报》撰写斗牛文章的维森特·萨巴拉·德拉·塞纳说，斗牛属于广大群众，他认为左派批评斗牛是一种耻辱。
Writers like Mr Zabala are printed in the culture section of their newspapers, not in sport.
像萨巴拉这样的作家，他们的文章出现在报纸的文化版面，而不是体育版面。
Criticism is not just modern and left-wing.
批评不仅来自现代的、左翼的人士。
A papal decree forbade bullfighting in 1567 and has never been repealed.
教皇在1567年颁布法令禁止斗牛，这项法令从未被废除。
Ernest Hemingway, an American writer, called the sport “decadent” in “Death in the Afternoon” (1932), though he loved it still, big-game hunter that he was.
美国作家欧内斯特·海明威在《午后之死》（1932年）中称这项运动“是堕落的”，尽管作为大型猎物猎人他依然很喜欢斗牛。
In 2010 the Catalan government, spurred by regional nationalists, imposed a ban (later reversed by the constitutional court, but bullfights have not returned).
2010年，受地区民族主义者的推动，加泰罗尼亚政府实施了一项禁令（后来被宪法法庭推翻，但斗牛活动并未恢复）。
In 2022 Spain’s Socialist-led government said that a “culture voucher” for young people to spend on activities after the pandemic could not apply to bullfights.
2022年，西班牙社会党领导的政府表示，年轻人在疫情后用于参加活动的“文化券”不能用于斗牛。
(A court disagreed and allowed it to apply to fights.)
(一个法院不同意，并允许文化券用于斗牛。)
In Mexico criticism depends less on left versus right but instead divides parts of the population with closer links to Spain from the rest.
在墨西哥，批评较少取决于左派与右派之争，而是将与西班牙关系更密切的部分人口与其他人口区分开来。
Eleven states in the centre of the country have named bullfighting a cultural patrimony.
墨西哥中部的11个州已将斗牛命名为文化遗产。
Ramiro Alatorre, president of the National Association for the Breeding of Fighting Bulls, says that protesters are limited to the capital and are “outsiders to our culture and roots”.
全国斗牛饲养协会主席拉米罗·阿拉托雷表示，抗议者仅在首都存在，是“我们文化和根源的局外人”。
The sport has already defied many predictions of disappearance, but it is in decline.
这项运动已经打破了许多关于它会消失的预测，但是它日渐式微。
In Spain the number of full-fledged bullfights has fallen by about a third since 2010.
在西班牙，自2010年以来，完整斗牛表演的数量下降了约三分之一。
Mr Zabala says that he was not sure bullfighting could survive the pandemic.
萨巴拉表示，他不确定斗牛能否在这场疫情中幸存下来。
But after low attendance in 2019 and during covid, it has come back.
但是在2019年和新冠疫情期间的低上座率之后，斗牛再次回归。
That may well be due to a defiant reaction by fans in response to what they perceive as nannying.
这很可能是由于粉丝们（对斗牛管控）的反抗，他们认为这是保姆式的管理。
Supporters, as well as activist opponents, can be rather bull-headed.
无论是支持者还是激进的反对者都可能像牛一样固执。
