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Bullfighting
斗牛
Bad sport?
斗牛是糟粕運動嗎？
A bloody tradition is under attack.
一個血腥的傳統正在遭受攻擊。
Bocinero, half a tonne and dull black, impressed the crowd more than the two bulls who had come and died before him.
公牛博西內羅重達半噸，毛色烏黑暗沉，比起之前上場并被它殺死的兩頭公牛，它給觀眾留下的印象更為深刻。
He hooked his left horn under the right leg of Tomas Rufo, the matador, who landed nearby.
它用左邊的牛角鉤住了斗牛士托馬斯·魯弗的右腿，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.
公牛乘勝追擊，在其他斗牛士跳進來分散它的注意力之前把魯弗滾了好幾圈。
Mr Rufo was soon up limping, shaking off his pain, and before long Bocinero fell under his sword.
魯弗很快就站起來一瘸一拐地走著，忘掉身上的疼痛，不久博西內羅就倒在了他的劍下。
He died within a minute.
它在一分鐘內就死掉了。
(To your correspondent it felt like a very long minute.)
（對本文記者來說，這一分鐘感覺很漫長。）
Bullfighting, defying many predictions, still lives.
盡管很多人預言其將消失，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.
博西內羅在馬德里的一個座無虛席的體育場內被殺害，當時正是一年一度的圣伊西德羅節，這個節日是為了紀念馬德里市的守護神。
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，西班牙的斗牛場都會為有史以來最偉大的斗牛士之一何塞利托默哀片刻，他于1920年在斗牛場中喪生。
Danger hangs over the spectacle at all times.
危險始終籠罩著這場奇觀。
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.
亞歷山大·弗萊明于1928年發現了青霉素，馬德里斗牛場外矗立著他的雕像，這是所有受益于現代醫學而從重傷中幸存下來的斗牛士們對他的感謝。
The ritual of bullfighting has changed little since Joselito’s demise.
自何塞利托去世后，斗牛的傳統幾乎沒有改變。
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.
那種熟悉感和傳統性是這場表演的部分吸引力所在：用披風試探和激怒公牛，騎馬的斗牛士用長矛刺戳公牛，持矛斗牛士將帶刺的短矛扎入公牛的背部，然后斗牛士用紅色的穆萊塔披風逗引公牛，之后給它致命一擊。
Bullfighting is practised in eight countries.
八個國家有斗牛。
It is not just popular in Spain but in parts of Latin America, too.
斗牛不僅在西班牙很受歡迎，在拉丁美洲的部分地區也很受歡迎。
Mexico City has the biggest bullring in the world.
墨西哥城擁有世界上最大的斗牛場。
But those intent on fighting bullfighting are becoming more emboldened.
但是那些一心想要打擊斗牛的人變得更加勇敢無畏。
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，哥倫比亞批準了一項全國性的斗牛禁令，哥倫比亞左翼總統古斯塔沃·佩特羅很快將簽署該禁令使之成為法律。
This year Mexico City’s season went ahead only after a judicial decision banning it was overturned.
今年，在一項禁止斗牛的司法裁決被推翻后，墨西哥城的斗牛季才得以繼續進行。
Protesters stopped traffic with signs reading, “It’s not art. It’s torture.”
抗議者們舉著寫有“這不是藝術，這是折磨”的標語牌阻斷了交通。
Five of Mexico’s 32 states have outlawed it.
墨西哥的32個州中有5個州已宣布其為非法。
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，西班牙極左翼政黨及西班牙政府的初級合作伙伴“統一黨”的歐內斯特·烏爾塔松宣布取消全國斗牛獎。
“People understand less and less that animal torture is practised, and that prizes are given for it,” he said.
“人們越來越不了解這是在折磨動物，而且還為此頒發獎項。”他說。
In other words bullfighting has left the sporting arena and entered a political one.
換句話說，斗牛已經走出了體育競技場，進入了政治舞臺。
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，左翼選民越來越希望禁止斗牛，而右翼選民則不僅希望斗牛保持合法，還希望國家給予補貼。
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.
這并非是“告訴我你對斗牛的看法，我就會告訴你你對巴勒斯坦的看法。”西班牙保守派報紙《世界報》專欄作家大衛·梅希亞說，他批評社會黨政府，但也反對斗牛。
Yet tastes have changed from a decade ago, when it was considered a more acceptable tradition.
然而，人們的品味已經和十年前不同了，當時斗牛被認為是一種比較可以接受的傳統。
Remaining left-wing supporters today are older and rural.
如今剩下的左翼支持者年齡較大，且來自農村。
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.
西班牙中左翼報紙《國家報》不報道拳擊，認為拳擊既殘酷又骯臟，但為了順應仍然喜愛斗牛的左翼人士，它會報道斗牛。
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.
為《世界報》撰寫斗牛文章的維森特·薩巴拉·德拉·塞納說，斗牛屬于廣大群眾，他認為左派批評斗牛是一種恥辱。
Writers like Mr Zabala are printed in the culture section of their newspapers, not in sport.
像薩巴拉這樣的作家，他們的文章出現在報紙的文化版面，而不是體育版面。
Criticism is not just modern and left-wing.
批評不僅來自現代的、左翼的人士。
A papal decree forbade bullfighting in 1567 and has never been repealed.
教皇在1567年頒布法令禁止斗牛，這項法令從未被廢除。
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.
美國作家歐內斯特·海明威在《午后之死》（1932年）中稱這項運動“是墮落的”，盡管作為大型獵物獵人他依然很喜歡斗牛。
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，受地區民族主義者的推動，加泰羅尼亞政府實施了一項禁令（后來被憲法法庭推翻，但斗牛活動并未恢復）。
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，西班牙社會黨領導的政府表示，年輕人在疫情后用于參加活動的“文化券”不能用于斗牛。
(A court disagreed and allowed it to apply to fights.)
(一個法院不同意，并允許文化券用于斗牛。)
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，批評較少取決于左派與右派之爭，而是將與西班牙關系更密切的部分人口與其他人口區分開來。
Eleven states in the centre of the country have named bullfighting a cultural patrimony.
墨西哥中部的11個州已將斗牛命名為文化遺產。
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”.
全國斗牛飼養協會主席拉米羅·阿拉托雷表示，抗議者僅在首都存在，是“我們文化和根源的局外人”。
The sport has already defied many predictions of disappearance, but it is in decline.
這項運動已經打破了許多關于它會消失的預測，但是它日漸式微。
In Spain the number of full-fledged bullfights has fallen by about a third since 2010.
在西班牙，自2010年以來，完整斗牛表演的數量下降了約三分之一。
Mr Zabala says that he was not sure bullfighting could survive the pandemic.
薩巴拉表示，他不確定斗牛能否在這場疫情中幸存下來。
But after low attendance in 2019 and during covid, it has come back.
但是在2019年和新冠疫情期間的低上座率之后，斗牛再次回歸。
That may well be due to a defiant reaction by fans in response to what they perceive as nannying.
這很可能是由于粉絲們（對斗牛管控）的反抗，他們認為這是保姆式的管理。
Supporters, as well as activist opponents, can be rather bull-headed.
無論是支持者還是激進的反對者都可能像牛一樣固執。
