不带刺就不叫漫画
上周，一家伊朗报纸开多年先河，首次刊登以伊朗国家元首为主题的漫画。这副漫画只有一个问题，那就是该幅漫画一点都不好笑。

Posted Saturday, March 25, 2006

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Last week, an Iranian newspaper became the first in many years to publish a cartoon of the country's leader. There was just one problem; the cartoon was not funny. It showed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, surrounded by poultry, hitting a punching bag with a nuclear emblem on it. The message: The busy President is fighting two big problems at once -- the spread of the bird flu and a showdown with the international community over Iran's nuclear program. Not exactly a thigh-slapper.
上周，一家伊朗报纸开多年先河，首次刊登以伊朗国家元首为主题的漫画。这副漫画只有一个问题，那就是该幅漫画一点都不好笑。漫画中伊朗总统 内贾德（Mahmoud Ahmadinejad）被许多鸟类和禽类包围着，他戴着拳击手套击打着一个带有核能源标志的球状物。 漫画意在显示繁忙的内贾德正面临两个棘手的大问题，禽流感的威胁以及引起国际社会关注的伊朗核问题。

With all due respect to the artist, who is clearly labouring under restrictions, the cartoon fell flat because it did not insult anyone. It had no barb, no edge. Political cartooning is the cruellest art. The best cartoonists take no prisoners. The best cartoons hurt.
我们一点也不想贬低画这幅漫画的艺术家：该艺术家创作显然受到限制，这幅漫画平淡中庸，因为它没有冒犯任何人。它既没有刺，也没有角。政治漫画让人难堪的艺术。最好的漫画家不把任何人放在眼里，最好的漫画总是让人受不了。

Consider a recent gem by The Globe's Tony Jenkins. It came just after Stephen Harper appointed Liberal turncoat David Emerson to his Conservative cabinet. Critics called Mr. Harper a hypocrite because he attacked the Liberals for luring Belinda Stronach from the Conservative ranks last year and then turned around as soon as he became Prime Minister and lured Mr. Emerson. The cartoon shows Mr. Harper as a Boy Scout, in short pants and badges, lighting a smoke. The cartoon Harper is fat and sleazy, with a cynical look on his face as he demands of the viewer: "Yeah? So?" Insulting? Certainly. Unfair? Mr. Harper's supporters would certainly say so. Yet the cartoon said more about Mr. Harper's hypocrisy than a dozen earnest editorials.
环球邮报的Tony Jenkins最近发表的一副漫画精品就很值得人们回味。这副漫画的创作背景是哈珀接纳背叛自由党的艾民信进入他的保守党内阁。评论家称哈珀是一个伪君 子，因为他去年猛烈抨击自由党引诱Belinda Stronach离开保守党加入自由党阵营，而今年他一登上总理宝座就掉转方向，拉拢艾民信加入保守党阵营。这副漫画将哈珀画成了一个童子军，穿着短裤、 带着徽章，嘴里还叼了一支烟。漫画中的哈珀看上去肥胖臃肿及俗不可耐，并摆出一副嘲讽的样子问那些漫画读者：“我就这么干！你们又能拿我怎么样？”这是否 是对哈珀的侮辱？毫无疑问！这是否对哈珀公平？哈珀的支持者肯定会认为这副漫画对哈珀是不公平的。结果是，漫画维妙维肖地刻画了哈珀的伪善，其讽刺效果远 远超过了许多篇咬文嚼字的社论。

Political cartoons are much in the news these days. The uproar over those famous Danish cartoons reminds us how powerful these funny little scribbles can be and how important they are to the right of free expression. Twelve simple drawings in a Danish newspaper have caused anger and mayhem around the Islamic world.
最近，政治漫画成立街头巷尾、人人议论的新闻。丹麦的漫画风波引起的骚动不仅提醒我们这些有趣的小图画有着多么大的影响力，而且提醒我们言论自由是何等的重要。丹麦报纸刊登的十二副简单的漫画造成整个穆斯林世界的愤怒和动乱。

Whether the Jyllands-Posten was right to publish the provocative drawings about the Prophet Mohammed is something honest people can disagree about. It would be tragic, however, if the controversy over the Danish cartoons placed a chill on this most necessary of art forms. Unless political cartoonists feel free to dip their quills in poison ink, a society cannot truly be called free. In autocracies, cartoonists are silenced, jailed or reduced to drawing harmless doodles, as is our friend in Iran. In democracies worthy of the name, authorities grit their teeth and leave cartoonists alone.
那些循规蹈矩的人可以对《日德兰邮报》（Jyllands-Posten）刊登以伊斯兰教先知穆罕默德的、挑衅的的漫画是否合适进行褒贬。 但是，如果因为丹麦漫画事件而引发的争论使得这一最必需的艺术表达形式受到限制，那将是一件很不幸的事情。如果政治漫画家不能就那些敏感的话题进行创作， 那就谈不上什么真正的自由社会。在那些政治独裁的国家，漫画家无法自由表现，被监禁或者被迫画一些无关痛痒的漫画，就好象那个伊朗的漫画朋友一样。而崇尚 政治民主的国家里，那些有权有势的人即使对涉及自己的漫画恨得咬牙切齿，也不该去找漫画家的麻烦。

Cartoonists have been taking aim at the high and mighty for centuries. Martin Luther's pamphlets about church corruption used woodcuts showing the Pope handing out favours to the nobility while scorning the poor. France's Philipon had the nerve to depict King Louis-Philippe as a pear, at a time when to call someone a pear was to call him stupid. The King had Philipon jailed for defamation. Adolf Hitler hated being mocked by cartoonists so much that he had a pet writer put together a book refuting the "lies" propagated by cartoons about him.
几个世纪以来，漫画家一直将矛头对准有权有势的人。在马丁·路德发表的关于教会腐败的小册子中，就引用了一副刻画教皇亲近权贵,蔑视贫民 的木版画。法国的漫画大师Philipon曾经鼓起勇气将法王路易·菲利普（louis-philippe）勾画成梨状,而在法国，称一个人为梨子就是说 他很蠢，国王因此以诽谤罪将Philipon监禁。希特勒因为非常痛恨漫画家对他的嘲讽，专门找了一个御用文人写了一本书去反驳那些讽刺他的漫画所散播的 “谣言”。

Even democratic leaders often take umbrage. Winston Churchill was livid when Malcolm Muggeridge's Punch magazine portrayed him as a doddering old man, his face showing the effects of paralysis from a recent illness. The drawing stung because Churchill, then in his 80s and well past his wartime glory years, was facing pressure to resign because of his infirmity.
甚至连一些民主国家的领导人也常常因为政治漫画感到不快。当Malcolm Muggeridge的《笨拙》杂志将英国首相邱吉尔描绘成一个步履蹒跚，并且由于当时的疾病出现面部瘫痪的老人时，他被气得脸色发青。因为当时邱吉尔已 经年届80，早已结束了其光辉的战斗岁月，且因年老体弱正面临辞职压力，所以这副漫画对他的刺激非常大。

In Canada, B.C. cabinet minister (and later premier) Bill Vander Zalm sued Victoria Times cartoonist Bob Bierman for showing him pulling the wings off a fly, after Mr. Vander Zalm was quoted as saying native youths in Vancouver should return to their reserves rather than hang around the streets. In dismissing the case, Chief Justice Nathan Nemetz said that, though cartoons can be savage, people seeking public office can expect to draw attack and searching criticism. The Bierman cartoon, he said, "represents fair comment on a matter of public interest."
在加拿大，当年的卑诗省内阁部长（后来的省长）Bill Vander Zalm曾经将维多利亚时代杂志的漫画家Bob Bierman告上法庭。Bierman的漫画将Zalm描绘成一个拔掉苍蝇翅膀的人。因为Zalm被报道说：温哥华的印第安年轻人应该回到他们的保留地 去而不是在街头游荡。审判长Nathan Nemetz驳回了Zalm的诉状，并且指出，虽然各种漫画的内容比较无礼，但那些寻求在政府内当官的人应该有思想准备接受人们的攻击和批评。 Bierman认为Bierman的漫画“为了公众利益而发出的公正评论。”

Mr. Vander Zalm naturally disagreed. To him the cartoon was grossly unfair. But it is unfair to demand fairness from a cartoonist. His job is not to deliver a balanced view of things. It is to take aim at a target and let fly. When the cartoon hits the mark, the subject is often wounded -- "There's malice in it," complained Churchill. "Look at my hands. . . . I have beautiful hands" -- but then, he often deserves to be. Churchill's powers were failing, and no one had the heart to tell him it was time to go.
Zalm大人自然对法官的判决不以为然。他自认这副漫画对他极其不公平。但是，向漫画家要求公平本身就是不公平的做法。漫画家们没有责任要 表达一件事的正反两方面，他们的责任是瞄准目标，由人们自己去理解其作品的含义。当漫画内容切中要害时，相关人物总会受到创伤。邱吉尔曾经抱怨道，“那幅 漫画显然不安好心，看看我的双手，我有一双美丽的手......”但从另一方面来讲，他就该不断地被人讽刺和挖苦。那时的邱吉尔已经力不从心了，只是没有 人忍心去对他说：邱吉尔，你该下台了！

The cartoon that is meanest is often the truest. If free speech is to flourish, cartoonists must have the right to be cruel.
那些最尖刻的漫画往往是人们最真实的表达。如果我们崇尚言论自由，漫画家就必须有讽刺挖苦的权利。

编注：以上是加拿大全国发行的最大日报－"环球邮报" 2006年2月27日发表的社论。理静、贾宁扬编译。