VOA常速英语:The Power of Political Cartoons

Matt Walker draws cartoons for a living.He’s a staff cartoonist for Political, an American political journalism outlet just outside Washington.“Where a strange mix of things in that we are making serious commentary on serious topics,but we’re doing it not so seriously and we get to draw our opinions with silly pictures.”The Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist says the main advantage of a political cartoon is being able to communicate an opinion very quickly.“I can draw a picture and put in a little word bubble and you can read it in about four seconds and you get it.It has to hit you in the face kind of hard and fast and you know it when you’ve been hit.”In this cartoon, for example, Walker was inspired by an iconic image by American artist Norman Rockwell reflecting a traditional scene of American culture.
Matt Walker以画漫画为职业。他是一名漫画师，为华盛顿外的一家名字为Political的美国政治杂志社工作。“这是一个奇特的组合，我们为严肃的事情进行严肃的评论，但是我们并不是那么严肃地去做这个事情，我们用搞笑的图片来表达我们的观点。”这位获得过普利策奖的漫画家说政治漫画的主要优势是能够迅速地表达观点。“我能够画画，然后加上一个词语泡泡[漫画中圈出人物所说的话的圆圈]。大概4秒钟你就能读完并理解意思。就像又恨又快地打在你的脸上，并且当你被打的时候你知道。”举个例子，在这个漫画里，Walker受到美国艺术家Norman Rockwell的标志性图像的鼓励，展现了一个美国文化的传统风貌。

The cartoonist says over the years his craft has evolved.“When I started 40 years ago, doing cartoons of editorial cartoon was a black-and-white single panel cartoon in a newspaper and now cartoons can be color; they can be animated.They can be graphic novels that are political.”
这位漫画家说，多年来，他的手艺不断改进。“当我40年前开始画漫画的时候，评论性漫画就是一个在报纸上的黑白单一的板式漫画。现在漫画就是彩色的了；它们也能动。它们也能是有政治性的漫画小说。”

Like this 2018 Pulitzer prize-winning work by journalists Jake Halpern and illustrator Michael Sloan currently on display at the Museum in Washington.The series tells the story of two Syrian families harrowing journey from their homeland to the US where they settled as refugees in 2016.Patti Rule is vice president of exhibits at the Museum.“This is the beginning of this country.Editorial cartoons have been framing issues and framing debate from events,Ben Franklin, the live free or die, the segmented snake that rallied the thirteen colonies together.So it’s always been a part of this country in the world’s way of freely expressing ideas and debate.”
由记者Jake Halpern和插画师Michael Sloan创作的作品获得了2018年普利策奖，目前正在华盛顿的博物馆进行展出。这个作品系列讲述的是两个叙利亚家庭从他们的国家来到美国的痛苦旅程。他们在2016年以难民的身份在美国定居。Patti Rule是博物馆展会的副总裁。“这是这个国家的开始。评论性漫画已经开始从事件中制定议题，进行辩论。本·富兰克林， 要么自由要么死亡，把13个殖民地团结起来的锯形蛇。这是这个国家的一部分，向世界自由地表达意见和进行辩论。”

But free expressions sometimes comes at a heavy price.In 2015 Islamic terrorists attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo,a French satirical magazine after it published unflattering cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.12 people were killed in the attack including several prominent cartoonists.
但是自由言论有时也会带来沉重的代价。在2015年伊斯兰恐怖分子袭击了《查理周刊》的办公室，这是一个法国的讽刺杂志，发表了一篇关于先知穆罕默德的不讨人喜欢的漫画。12个人在袭击中身亡，其中包括几位有名的漫画家。

“And within their culture, they’re certainly entitled to be offended but they’re not entitled to decide that they’re gonna go to Paris and kill the people who created that cartoon.Many cartoonists have had to flee their countries because they were brave enough to take on regimes or political figures.
在他们的文化中，他们感觉受到了冒犯，但是他们没有权利到法国去杀害那些创作了这个漫画的人。很多漫画家不得不逃离他们的国家因为他们很勇敢地去挑战政权或者政治人物。”

Walker hopes that in these troubled times people will appreciate cartoons for what they are.“I think the good kind of political cartooning is something that slips in a really good political point with a certain amount of good humor and wit that people will process and hopefully it won’t make them angry but will make them think.”
Walker希望在困难的时候，人们能欣赏漫画。“我认为好的政治漫画能够带有良好的政治观点，并带有一定的好的幽默感和智慧。人们能够理解且不会感到愤怒，但是能够让他们进行思考。”

Julie Taboh VOA news Arlington Virginia
美国之音记者Julie Taboh弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿报道