BARCELONA – Here in Catalonia, this persistently separatist-minded region of Spain, bullfighting has been in trouble for ages. And the economy hasn’t helped. Ticket prices are akin to opera’s. Fights are expensive to produce. The number of bullfights plummeted across Spain this year.
在加泰隆尼亞這個堅持脫離西班牙的自治區，鬥牛一向是個問題。經濟情勢也幫不上忙。它的票價如同歌劇。鬥牛的製作費高居不下。今年全西班牙的鬥牛場次直直落。

But José Tomás still draws enormous crowds. For aficionados, he is the last best hope for toreo, as bullfighting is called. Reclusive, a matador of unearthly fearlessness and calm, steeped in history and mystery, he retired in 2002, at 27 and the height of his fame, only to return unexpectedly five years later in Barcelona for what turned out to be the first sellout in 20 years at the 19,000-seat Plaza Monumental, this city’s beautiful old brick-and-tile bullring.
但是荷西‧多瑪士仍然魅力不減。對鬥牛迷而言，他是鬥牛界的最後希望。這位超凡、無畏、冷靜的鬥牛士，在2002年27歲名聲最旺時隱退。5年後不預期的出現在巴塞隆那紀念廣場的磚造古老鬥牛場，使這個擁有19,000座位的場地，近20年來首次爆滿。

Sunday he was back, for another special occasion: perhaps the last bullfight ever in Catalonia. 
星期天他為了特殊的場合回來：也許是為加泰隆尼亞的最後一場鬥牛。

Over the last three decades or so, dwindling interest among young Catalans has combined with pressure from animal-rights advocates and from Catalan nationalists to cripple toreo in Catalonia. Across the region’s four provinces, bullrings have closed; Barcelona’s is the only one still active.
過去30多年，年青的加泰隆尼亞人失去興趣，加上主張動物權利人士的施壓及加泰隆尼亞極端分子，使鬥牛士在此吃瘪。自治區裡4個省份的鬥牛場都已關閉；只剩下巴塞隆那的還在運作。

Now a referendum before the Catalan Parliament would end bullfighting here altogether. There has long been talk in this part of Spain about a total prohibition on toreo. Fans have played it down. But this time, even aficionados think a ban is likely to pass.
禁止鬥牛長期以來就是這個地區的話題。加泰隆尼亞議會和公民複決一致傾向終結鬥牛。鬥牛迷們試圖冷處理，但到如今，也認為挽回無望。

So Sunday’s corrida – the term refers to an afternoon’s regular card of three matadors and six bulls – was more than just the last bullfight of the season. It was possibly the end of an era. And José Tomás (José Tomás Román Martín, but everybody knows him by his double-barreled first name) had come, in what seemed almost like a last-ditch attempt, to lend his box office appeal and artistry to the anti-ban side.
週日的節目單（通常是在下午，由3位鬥牛士屠6頭公牛）不只是這一季的最後一場鬥牛，還可能是一個時代的結束。荷西‧多瑪士（為人所知的複名）的票房和此項藝術的表現，像是反對禁止一方力守的最後防線。

Artistry, that is, to aficionados. There is the art of the ritual, ancient and colorful, with its sequence of movements, firmly established but, because the bulls always vary, different each time and entailing a kind of balletic grace on the part of the matadors, who are judged not least by whether they can make the bulls look graceful, too. Bullfighting is a matter of Spanish cultural patrimony, fans say. Europe may wish to come together around common social and economic interests, but national cultures must be respected, and toreo represents cultural diversity.
鬥牛迷認為這是藝術。這項藝術包含儀典、古老且色彩繽紛，具節奏的律動和無懼的面對狂牛。因為每頭牛的牛性不同，鬥牛士需展現有如芭蕾舞般的步伐，同時也要讓公牛呈現優雅的一面。粉絲們說，鬥牛是西班牙的文化遺產。希望歐洲能團結成一致且有共同經濟利益，但是必須尊重各國的文化，而鬥牛正代表文化的多樣性。

Opponents see it otherwise, of course. A dozen or so animal-rights protesters stood outside the arena Sunday, holding aloft handmade signs splattered with red paint.
反對一方的觀點當然不同。週日，一小群主張動物權利的人士，手持自製濺有紅漆的標語在場外抗議。

Up the street, at La Gran Peña, a bar favored by aficionados, Isabel Bardón, the bar’s owner, balanced a tray of beers while navigating a swarm of patrons, some craning their necks to see the retired matador, who was smiling for photographs beside older men smoking thick cigars. “It would be bad news for me and my business,” she speculated about the ban’s possible approval.
伊莎貝‧巴東是一間鬥牛迷群聚酒吧的店東，正穿梭在顧客間遞送啤酒，一些人伸頭看著露出微笑被拍照的鬥牛士。她推測這項禁令可能會通過，她說：「對我和我的生意都是個壞消息。」

It might be, who knows. What’s clear is that during the early years of the last century, Barcelona had no fewer than three bullrings. It was a mecca for aficionados. There were more corridas here from the 1920s to the 1960s than in any other Spanish city.
也許是，誰知道。上個世紀初期巴塞隆那有3座以上的鬥牛場。曾是鬥牛迷的勝地。在1920至1960年代，這裡的鬥牛場次比任何一個西班牙城市都多。

But Catalan nationalists began to spread the notion that toreo was an imposition on Catalonia by Franco’s fascist regime, which promoted it, like flamenco, as a patriotic symbol. Opposition to bullfighting became a declaration of separatism by other means. Animal rights came along and fueled the nationalists’ agenda.
佛朗哥法西斯統治時期大力推展鬥牛，就像佛朗明哥舞成為愛國象徵。加泰隆尼亞極端分子為脫離西班牙而反對鬥牛。主張動物權利人士隨行，使這個議題火上加油。

That the issue remains, above all, political is demonstrated over the border, in the Catalan region of southern France, where bullfighting is embraced as fiercely as it is opposed in Spanish Catalonia, for exactly the same separatist reasons, in that case because it is banned in Paris.
這個議題仍然持續，法國南部的加泰隆尼亞人地區也在抗議，和西班牙的同胞不同，他們擁護鬥牛。同樣為了分離主義，只因為法國禁止鬥牛。

“At a point when Europe is becoming bigger and more multicultural, Barcelona is becoming smaller and more Catalan,” is how Robert Elms, a British travel writer who has lived here, saw the situation. He had come to see José Tomás and remarked, before the corrida, how the dark but magical city he once knew has become a shiny, designer-label hub that nonetheless looks increasingly inward.
看到此一情勢的旅居此間英國旅遊作家羅伯‧艾姆斯說：「當歐洲越來越大和更多元文化時，巴塞隆那就退縮和在地化。」在演出前他訪問荷西‧多瑪士並且評論，這個他一度認知的暗鬱但具魔力的城市如何蛻變成亮麗、設計品牌的樞紐，且仍然自省。

“It’s vanity,” he said “That’s the only word. Vanity describes an insecure culture.” The possible ban on bullfighting, he added, is akin to a law here requiring schoolchildren to receive much of their education in Catalan, not Spanish. 
他說：「『空幻』是唯一可以說明的字。它描述一個不安的文化。」他接著說，禁止鬥牛就像此地的一項法令，要求學童以加泰隆尼亞語受教，而非西班牙文。

Paco March nodded at the mention of that connection. A Barcelona native, he is the bullfighting columnist for La Vanguardia, the city’s second biggest newspaper. His 15-year-old daughter is called a fascist by her classmates, he said, because she has a picture of a torero pasted into her notebook.
巴哥‧馬切點頭同意論述的關連性。他是土生土長的巴塞隆那人，是這裡的第二大報「先鋒報」的鬥牛專欄作家。他說，他15歲的女兒被稱為法西斯黨徒，只因為在筆記本上貼了一張鬥牛士的照片。

“I feel rage that in the name of democracy,” Mr. March added about the pending referendum, “a minority of opponents of toreo could erase the rights of another minority, aficionados, who are enjoying what is in this country a legal spectacle that expresses deep truths about life and death taken to their extreme.”
馬切先生補充關於待決的公民複決，說：「我為假民主之名感到憤怒，一小撮反對鬥牛的人竟能抹煞另一小群鬥牛迷的權利。他們喜好在這個國家合法、展現生與死最真實、極致的景象。」

Aficionados talk this way. They point out how bullfighting makes death plain and visible at a time when most people, those who can do so, choose to put distance between themselves and the reality of it. Some of these same people condone factory farming by eating meat, but they condemn bullfights. Or they go to bullfights in places like Portugal, where the bulls are not killed by matadors.
鬥牛迷這樣說。他們指出，鬥牛將死亡明示，因為一般人做不到，而選擇保持距離。這些人為了吃內肉而寬恕工廠式的養殖，但是他們責難鬥牛。或者他們跑到諸如葡萄牙等地去看鬥牛，那裡的鬥牛士不殺牛。

They’re killed afterward, offstage, so nobody has to watch.
之後，他們在鬥牛場外殺牛，因此沒有人目睹。

To matadors, that’s truly unfair, because it denies them their duty to the bulls, with whom they have fought, and spares them the particular vulnerability they are meant to experience at this point in the bullfight.
對鬥牛士而言也不公平，他們需與牛鬥，需保護同僚和自身以免受傷，再再都須要臨場經驗，因此不容否定他們對牛的責任。

Whether or not you buy this argument, it would be a mistake to conclude that an end to bullfighting here portends its prohibition across Spain. While nearly three quarters of Spaniards say they have no interest in bullfighting, they’re loath to have foreigners tell them what they can or can’t do. This is why Spain has consistently resisted pressure from the European Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights to end toreo. What will end it, if anything, is public indifference, competition from cheaper entertainment like soccer and video games, and the passing of a generation of aficionados.
不論你站在爭議的那一邊，認為西班牙將全面禁止鬥牛，都會是錯誤的結論。雖然近3/4的西班牙人表示他們對鬥牛不感興趣，卻不容外人置喙。這就是西班牙始終抗拒來自歐洲議會和歐洲人權法院為終結鬥牛而施壓的原因。會讓鬥牛消失的可能原因是，大眾失去興趣，無法和較廉價的娛樂諸如足球或電玩競爭以及失去鬥牛迷的傳承。

And so, in the failing light of a warm early autumn afternoon, amid the bursts of flashbulbs and chants of “Torero!” and “Olé!” José Tomás appeared at least one last time in Barcelona, the standard-bearer for an afflicted art. He orchestrated his usual series of hair-raising passes with the bulls. Like Roger Federer, he makes every action look impossibly slow and stylish.
一個初秋的午後，在鎂光燈不停的閃爍下和「鬥牛士」、「加油」的聲浪中，展現痛苦藝術的旗手荷西‧多瑪士最後一次現身在巴塞隆那。他組合了一連串令人驚嘆的動作，讓公牛近身通過。就像世界男網冠軍費德瑞，他的每一步都似慢動作純熟且優雅。

His costume sparkled under the spotlights. A brass band struck up a pasodoble. The fans cheered as if somehow his sheer eloquence might, at the last minute, save toreo from extinction here. They tossed flowers, hats, scarves, notebooks and just about anything else they had at hand onto the blood-soaked sand as he circled the ring.
荷西‧多瑪士一身勁裝在聚光燈下閃閃發亮。軍樂隊響起進行曲。粉絲們為他歡呼，為了鬥牛活動終結的最後一刻。當他繞場時，粉絲們將花束、帽子、圍巾、筆記本和任何手邊的東西擲向染血黃沙。

“This artful corrida to end the season may have been the last in this plaza,” lamented El Pais, the Spanish newspaper, the next morning. “What a shame if politicians banned bullfighting here.” 
次晨西班牙「國家報」婉悼：「本季最後一場鬥牛，可能是在這裡的最後一次。此間的政客禁止鬥牛真是可恥。」

Mr. March, the bullfighting writer from La Vanguardia, put it more bluntly. “We want to be different from the rest of Spain by not killing bulls,” he said. “But we’re just killing off our own culture.” 
先鋒報鬥牛專欄作家馬切先生說得更直接，他說：「我們以不宰牛來凸顯和西班牙其他地區的不同，但同時我們也宰掉了自己的文化。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/arts/01abroad.html

Slideshow: A Final Fight
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/09/30/arts/20091001_MATADOR_SLIDESHOW_index.html