《经济学人》双语：纽约市是涂鸦圣地？

原文标题：

New York’s graffiti revival

More writing on the wall

Tourists are coming to the Big Apple to tag, sometimes at their peril

纽约涂鸦的复兴

再往墙上多画点

游客们为了涂鸦而来到纽约，有时候是冒着危险来的

New York City is a graffiti mecca for some tourists

Tag time again in the Big Apple

对于一些游客来说，纽约市是涂鸦的圣地

又到了纽约涂鸦的时候啦

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The ten-car subway train was adorned at the end of June in a tunnel in Queens.

6月底，这列10节车厢的地铁在皇后区的一条隧道里被涂上了装饰。

The artists appeared to use paint rollers to cover it along one side, from top to bottom, in an awful shade of pink (think Pepto-Bismol) with a brown line.

艺术家们似乎从上到下，用滚漆筒沿着车厢的一侧涂满了夸张的粉红色（想象一下Pepto-Bismol胃药的包装）和一条棕色的线。

“It was done quickly,” speculates John Chandy, who works in the train yard in Jamaica, Queens.

约翰·钱迪估计，“这涂鸦完成的速度很快。”他在位于皇后区牙买加的列车场工作。

Tagging a train is often less about the art and more about the prize of marking something that entails risk and echoes the original graffiti writers, who blanketed subway trains, including the windows and seats inside, in the 1970s and 1980s.

给列车涂鸦往往与艺术无关，更多的是为了通过涂鸦一些需要冒险才能完成的东西来获得满足感，这与最初涂鸦画家的想法如出一辙。上世纪七八十年代，涂鸦画家在地铁里作画，他们涂鸦的范围包括车窗和车厢内的座位。

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Modern graffiti began in Philadelphia in the 1960s.

现代涂鸦起源于20世纪60年代的费城。

But it became an art form in New York City, says Eric Felisbret, author of “Graffiti New York”.

但《纽约涂鸦》的作者埃里克·费利斯布雷特说，涂鸦在纽约成了一种艺术形式。

“Graffiti benefited from the popularity of hip-hop globally,” says Mr Felisbret.

费利斯布雷特表示：“涂鸦得益于全球流行的嘻哈文化。”

“Out of all the elements of hip-hop, graffiti is by far the most rebellious…Back then, all graffiti was illegal.”

“在嘻哈音乐的所有元素中，涂鸦是迄今为止最叛逆的……那时候，所有的涂鸦都是非法的。”

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Many New York street artists have moved on to commissioned works—some younger ones have never created their murals illegally.

许多纽约街头艺术家已经开始接受委托创作——一些年轻的艺术家从未非法创作过壁画。

Graffiti tourists are coming to New York for the bragging rights of tagging there.

为了宣扬自己有权进行涂鸦创作，许多涂鸦游客都来到了纽约。

During the pandemic, some artists became brazen, painting buildings and walls even in the middle of the day.

疫情期间，一些艺术家格外大胆，更有甚者大中午就给建筑和墙壁涂鸦。

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In 2020 the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (mta), which runs the subway, spent $1.2m on cleaning.

2020年，运营地铁的大都会运输署（MTA）在清洗涂鸦方面花费了120万美元。

By the end of May this year it had already spent $1.1m. In all of 2021, 681 subway cars were “vandalised”.

截至今年5月底，该公司已在清洁方面支出了110万美元。2021年全年，681节地铁车厢被“破坏”。

This year more than 700 cars have been. More than one in ten subway cars had to be taken out of service for cleaning.

今年已经有700多辆车被“破坏”。超过十分之一的地铁车厢因为清洗的缘故而不得不停运。

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The recent spike in subway graffiti activity parallels the lifting of travel restrictions.

近期，地铁涂鸦数量的激增与旅行限制的解除息息相关。

The graffiti on trains usually gets cleaned or hidden quickly, so artists post images of their work on social media.

由于列车上的涂鸦通常很快就销声匿迹，因此艺术家们会在社交媒体上发布他们的涂鸦作品。

Sharif Profit, who organises the annual Graffiti Hall of Fame in Harlem, says he can always tell when the work is by someone from another country: “It is not on the same level.”

谢里夫·普里特是哈莱姆区年度涂鸦名人堂的组织者，他说他能分辨出哪些作品出自外国画家之手：“它们不是同一个水平的。”

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Graffiti in 191st street tunnel, NYC July 2022.

2022年7月纽约第191街隧道出现了涂鸦。

Tagging on the subway is dangerous. The live third rail is lethal and the tunnels are dark.

在地铁里涂鸦很危险，因为第三条铁轨是通电的，会致命，而且隧道里很黑。

Trains can appear with little warning, so trespassers may have no way of avoiding them.

列车会在毫无预警的情况下出现，因此这些擅闯者可能没法逃开。

Two French graffiti artists were killed by a train in Brooklyn in April.

今年4月，两名法国涂鸦艺术家在布鲁克林被地铁撞死了。

“As soon as I heard where the bodies were found, I knew they were taggers,” says Mr Felisbret.

费利斯布雷特表示：“我一听说尸体发现的地点，就知道他们是画涂鸦的人。”

“It was just really incredibly heartbreaking.”

“只是，这太令人心痛了。”

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The MTA removes any tagged train so as to avoid encouraging other people.

因为不想怂恿人们对列车进行涂鸦，大都会运输署把所有带涂鸦的列车都清理走了。

Passengers then have to wait longer.

乘客们等车的时间因此变长了。

That was the case recently, says Richard Davey, head of the mta’s New York City Transit system, when eight trains were vandalised.

理查德•戴维是纽约大都会运输署纽约市交通系统负责人，他表示最近就发生了这样的情况，有八列车因此被毁了。

The resulting delays affected thousands of commuters.

由此所造成的延误影响了数千名通勤者。

“It’s our goal to make sure we don’t return” to the 1970s, he says, “whether it’s in our stations, on our cars.”

他说：“我们的目的是，不让上个世纪70年代的情况重演，涂鸦不能出现在我们的车站，也不能出现在车厢。”

Graffiti on the subway began to die out in the late 1980s. One former graffiti writer said it is almost jarring to see tagging there now.

20世纪80年代末，地铁里的涂鸦逐渐消亡。一位曾经的涂鸦画家说，如今再在那里看到涂鸦，几乎让人感觉有点别扭。

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Passengers may not see much graffiti on the subway, but street art, murals and graffiti writing have become mainstream.

虽然乘客在地铁里可能看不到太多涂鸦了，但可以看到街头艺术、壁画和涂鸦书写已经成为了主流。

Nike sells a graffiti trainer (no two shoes are alike). Museums and galleries hold street-art exhibitions.

耐克开始卖涂鸦运动鞋（没有哪两只鞋是一样的）。博物馆和美术馆举办街头艺术展览。

Some initially unauthorised street art is protected, such as the Banksy image on West 79th Street, which is covered in Plexiglass.

一些最初不被授权的街头艺术如今得到了保护，例如西79街上的班克斯肖像，上面用有机玻璃盖着。

Not all graffiti tourists want to break the law. Some sign up for graffiti walking tours or workshops.

并非所有的涂鸦游客都想进行违法创作。一些人报名参加了涂鸦徒步旅行或讲习班。

Lauren Beebe, of Like A Local Tours, pairs groups with Brooklyn graffiti artists for a lesson.

Like A Local Tours公司的劳伦·毕比与布鲁克林的涂鸦艺术家组队上课。

She says these are especially popular with corporate groups from France.

她说，这些课程特别受法国企业集团的欢迎。

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Erica Lynch, a subway cleaner, is not a graffiti fan. She started cleaning the graffiti on the train from the Queens tunnel at 4am.

地铁清洁工艾丽卡·林奇并非涂鸦爱好者。凌晨4点，她就从皇后区的隧道出发，开始清理火车上的涂鸦。

Four and half hours later she had finished a segment of the car just ten feet wide and three feet nine inches high.

四个半小时后，她才只完成了一部分的车厢清理工作，清理面积只有10英尺（约3.048 米）宽，3英尺9英寸（约1.14米）高。

It was tough going. The pink paint did not want to come off.

清理起来很难。那些粉红色的油漆怎么也褪不下来。

Ms Lynch uses TSW (This Stuff Works!), a product designed to take off graffiti.

林奇使用的是TSW （This Stuff Works!），这是一款专门用来去除涂鸦的产品。

It is extremely potent and can damage skin and eyes on contact, so she wears protective gear.

这款产品的功效非常强，一旦接触就会损伤皮肤和眼睛，因此她戴上了护具。

“I’ve seen good graffiti,” says one of her colleagues, who grew up during its heyday in New York City, and here “you see a lot of bad.”

“我见过不错的涂鸦，”她的一位同事说，这位同事成长于纽约的全鼎盛时期。而在这里“你会看到很多不怎么样的作品。”

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量约770左右）

原文出自：2022年7月16日《The Economist》United States版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Fei Min

本文编辑校对: Irene

仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）

班克斯是一位匿名的英国涂鸦艺术家。他的街头作品经常带有讽刺意味，在旁则附有一些颠覆性、玩世不恭的黑色幽默和警世句子；其涂鸦大多运用独特的模板技术拓印而成。他的作品富有浓厚政治风格，俨如一种以艺术方式表达的社会评论，并已经在世界各地不同城市的街道、墙壁与桥梁出现，甚至成为当地引人入胜的城市面貌。

【重点句子】（3个）

Graffiti benefited from the popularity of hip-hop globally.

涂鸦得益于全球流行的嘻哈文化。

The recent spike in subway graffiti activity parallels the lifting of travel restrictions.

近期，地铁涂鸦数量的激增与旅行限制的解除息息相关。

Not all graffiti tourists want to break the law.

并非所有的涂鸦游客都想进行违法创作。

自由英语之路