好英语网当白宫栅栏成为抗议中的地标
WASHINGTON — In its brief life, the black chain-link fence surrounding the White House has gone from reviled to beloved to something of a capital landmark, however temporary. As with so much in America these days, perspectives change fast.
华盛顿——在白宫周围的黑色铁栅栏的短暂一生中，它从备受诟病变为备受喜欢，最后成为首都的一处地标——尽管只是暂时的存在。这就像美国眼下发生的许多事情一样，人们的看法也在飞速变化。
“We’ve taken the negativity of this wall and made it into something positive,” declared Adele McClure, who was part of a crowd of a few hundred protesters outside the White House late Tuesday night.
“我们把这堵墙的消极作用变成了积极的东西，”周二深夜，跟数百人一起在白宫外面抗议的阿黛尔·麦克卢尔(Adele McClure)说道。
Ms. McClure, of Arlington, Va., said her perspective had shifted rapidly about the fence. “At first I thought it was messed up,” she said. It was a sign of a leader who was isolating himself behind a fortress. But she now views the structure — which was installed to protect the White House from people demonstrating against the killing caught on video of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody — as a symbol of hope, beauty and “people coming together to transcend walls.”
来自弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿市的麦克卢尔表示，她对这道栅栏的看法已经迅速发生了转变。“起初我想这什么玩意儿啊，”她说。这是一个领导人将自己隔离在堡垒后面的标志。人们在看了手无寸铁的黑人男子乔治·弗洛伊德(George Floyd)之死的视频后，走上街头抗议警察滥权；安装这个栅栏，本来是为了把白宫与示威人群隔开。但她现在认为，它是希望、美丽和“人民团结起来跨越隔阂”的象征。
周一，民众在围观贴在白宫周围栅栏上的抗议标语。
Other protesters were perusing the chain-linked collage of signs, messages and artwork that covered nearly every part of the 8-foot barrier across Lafayette Park — a kind of chaotic bulletin board cluttered with “Black Lives Matter” logos, renderings of Mr. Floyd and statements of ridicule, often profane, aimed at the president who lived inside the barricades.
其他的示威者正在仔细阅读用链子连起来的各种标牌、标语和艺术品，它们几乎将拉法叶公园8英尺高的栅栏盖满——这像是一个凌乱的通知栏，上面好多“黑人的命也是命”的标识、弗洛伊德的画像，以及对生活在壁垒之内的总统的嘲弄，中间往往夹带着脏字。
The protesters were studying the structure less as a forbidding obstacle than as a makeshift art installation. It was evidence that cries for help like those of Mr. Floyd, who gasped for air and called out to his dead mother as a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, can transform into rallying cries. Or that an eyesore can become an icon.
抗议者寻摸着，它与其说是一个令人生畏的障碍物，不如说是一个临时性的艺术装置。事实表明，弗洛伊德的呼救可以转化为战斗的口号（一名警察用膝盖压住他的脖子长达8分46秒，他喘息着，呼唤着已故的母亲）。或者，一个有碍观瞻的东西，可以变成一个地标。
It was unclear how long the actual fence would remain here. The National Park Service said on Tuesday that the structure would be gone on or about Wednesday, but then said on Wednesday that it was in discussions with the Secret Service about the fencing around Lafayette Park.
栅栏本身会存在多久，目前还不清楚。国家公园管理局在周二说，可能周三就会将其拆除，但在周三又说，局方正在与特勤局讨论拉法叶广场周围的屏障问题。
As of midday Wednesday, the fence and concrete barriers enclosing the Ellipse on the south side of the White House had been removed and hauled out by big, yellow trucks. But the fence on the northern perimeter that kept people out of Lafayette Square was still there.
截至周三中午，围住白宫南侧椭圆形草坪的栅栏和混凝土屏障已被拆除，并用黄色大卡车拖走。但是，北边的栅栏仍使人们无法进入拉法叶广场。
Several people who had attended protests here said the fence had become a must-see attraction for them, a monument to how random citizens can reclaim a democratic space — how the so-called People’s House can be animated from all sides.
一些来这里参加过抗议活动的人说，这道围墙已经成为他们必看的景点，它变成了一个纪念普通民众如何重获民主空间的纪念碑——所谓的“人民之家”要怎样从四面八方重获生机。
Protesters and passers-by could be seen at all hours of the day and night taking photos of the metal canvass. They filmed videos of themselves narrating the messages and signs along a two-block stretch of H Street, between Vermont Avenue and 17th Street:
无论是白天还是晚上，都能看到抗议者和路人给这个金属展板拍照。他们拍摄视频，描述在佛蒙特大道和第17街之间跨越两个街区的H街上的那些标语和口号。
“Even the Old Suburban Guys are Mad Now.”
“连那些住在郊区的老家伙都恼火了。”
“8 minutes, 46 seconds.”
“8分46秒。”
“How Many Weren’t Filmed?”
“没拍下来的又有多少？”
“Color is not a Crime.”
“肤色无罪。”
The atmosphere among the protesters has changed considerably in recent nights, a marked departure from the tense and sporadically violent clashes with the police in front of the White House last week.
在最近几个晚上，抗议者中间的气氛发生了很大变化，与上周在白宫前与警方之间紧张、零星的暴力冲突有着明显的不同。
While still heavily policed and fortified, the area has acquired some of the ambience of a street fair, with artists painting murals of Mr. Floyd on plywood storefronts and street merchants hawking Black Lives Matter and “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts and face masks. Chants of protesters mingled with the carnival music of ice cream trucks clustered down 16th Street. The police were arrayed farther from the White House than they had been last week, their presence reduced around Lafayette Park.
尽管仍然有严密的警力和戒备，但是这里已经有了一点街头集市的氛围，艺术家们在店面外的胶合板上绘制弗洛伊德的壁画，街头商人兜售写有“黑人的命也是命”和“我喘不上气”的T恤和口罩。在第16街，抗议者的呼喊和冰淇淋车播放的狂欢节音乐交织在一起。与上周相比，警方的部署距离白宫更远了，他们在拉法叶公园附近的部署也减少了。
Early Wednesday morning, presumably in anticipation of the removal of the north perimeter fence, workers had taken the artwork and reassembled it in front of office buildings across H Street. It was unclear how long the artifacts would remain there, where they would end up or whether they would receive some permanent display.
周三一早，大概是预料到北边的围栏会被拆除，工人们把艺术品拿到H街对面的办公楼前重新组装起来。目前还不清楚这些制品会在那里放多久，最终会被放在哪里，或者是否能够得到某种永久性的展示。
But a new consensus appeared to be at hand among the protesters: These signs, flags and mementos were part of history. They should be preserved and cared for as such, as artifacts of a formative moment that was still unfolding.
但抗议者们似乎达成了一个新的共识：这些标语、旗帜和纪念品都是历史的一部分。作为一个仍在发展的重大时刻的产物，它们应该被保存和呵护。
“As a black person, there are a lot of places that you can’t go, and this wall is symbolic of that,” said Daniel Crittenden, 29, who had just arrived in Washington after an eight-hour drive from his home near Hartford, Conn. “But it is also symbolic of a movement to surmount walls that is going on all across the country.”
“作为一个黑人，有很多地方是你不能去的，这堵墙就象征着这一点，”29岁的丹尼尔·克里滕登(Daniel Crittenden)说，他刚从康涅狄格州哈特福德附近的家中开车8小时来到华盛顿。“但它也象征着全国各地正在进行的翻越墙壁的运动。”
Mr. Crittenden said he had never been to Washington before, and he felt overwhelmed by the volume of material to reflect on along the fence. “It is a lot to take in,” he said, adding that he hoped some government agency, like the National Archives, would collect and catalog the artwork whenever the fencing came down.
克里滕登说，他以前从没来过华盛顿，围栏周围有那么多可供思考的素材，让他觉得有些眼花缭乱。“有很多东西可以欣赏，”他说。他还说，他希望国家档案馆等政府机构能在围栏拆毁后收集并记录这些艺术品。
Either way, he said, it was important to witness these changes in real time. It felt like history, he said.
他说，无论以何种方式，实时见证这些变化都很重要。他说，感觉就像参与了历史。
“All of a sudden it feels like an exciting time and a hopeful time,” he said. “It’s also a sad time, but there is always that duality in black life. There’s tragedy and triumph and joy and perseverance, all working together. You definitely feel that here.”
“突然之间，我觉得这是一个激动人心、充满希望的时刻，”他说。“这也是一个悲伤的时刻，但黑人的生活里总是存在着二元性。有悲剧、有胜利、有欢乐、有坚持，所有的一切都在发挥作用。来到这里，你肯定能够感觉到。”