VOA文化艺术2023--Ernest Hemingway and Running of the Bulls

Ernest Hemingway and Running of the Bulls²

Ernest Hemingway, the Nobel Prize-winning American writer, first visited the Spanish city of Pamplona 100 years ago in July.

In July, people celebrate the feast³ of Saint⁴ Fermin in Pamplona where the traditional "running of the bulls" takes place. The event started more than seven hundred years ago. For nine days, people come to the northern Spanish city for bull¹ running, bullfighting and partying.

The festival affected⁵ Hemingway so deeply that he returned eight times between 1924 and 1959.

Here is a description of what happens at the start of the bull running:

The bells would toll⁶ eight times. A rocket would be lit. And the bulls would charge out of the gate. At that moment, a crowd of runners wearing white clothes and red scarves would start to run. They would look back, move and dance to avoid being gored⁸ by the charging bull's horns. Onlookers⁹ would cheer them on from balconies above.

In 1926, Hemingway wrote his first book, The Sun Also Rises. He wrote about his experiences in Pamplona and established himself as the voice of what became known as the "Lost Generation," a generation of people affected deeply by the events of World War I.

"I can't stand it to think my life is going so fast and I'm not really living it," says one character in the book.

"Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters," is the answer.

Present-day Pamplona

Bill Hillmann is a 41-year-old English professor from Chicago. He first read The Sun Also Rises while he was in college at the age of 20. When he turned to the last page, he said he knew two things: He wanted to become a writer, and he would run in front of Pamplona's bulls someday.

Hillmann's first running of the bulls was in 2005. He has been running ever since. "I got here, and I was just blown away by it. It was everything in the book but times ten...It was bigger. It was wilder. It was crazier," he told Reuters.

He has been gored twice, in 2014 and 2017, but that has not lessened¹⁰ his interest. "I've basically been kind of following Hemingway's ghost around...I'm a little bit haunted¹¹ by him," Hillmann added.

Sixty-nine-year-old Cheryl Mountcastle first read The Sun Also Rises at her New Orleans high school in Louisiana. For the past 24 years, she has rented the same apartment in Pamplona for the festival with her family. She said the book does not give details about another side of the festival - such as sharing food and dancing in the street.

Leontxi Arrieta is one of the few remaining Pamplona natives who met Hemingway. The 91-year-old tells Reuters that Hemingway and his fourth wife, Mary Welsh, stayed at her house. It was on their last visit to the festival in 1959, two years before Hemmingway's death.

Arrieta remembered that Hemingway wrote, drank vodka, and shocked the family by removing the crucifixes from the wall and putting them away.

What has changed?

Last year, 1.7 million people came to the festival, also known as Sanfermines. They left 1,200 tons of broken glass and other waste behind. A place on a balcony with a good view of the bull-running event can cost $220 per person.

Pamplona native Miguel Izu has written about the festival's links to Hemingway. He believes the writer's influence on its popularity¹² has not been as large as people say.

"Before Hemingway, tourists were already coming, especially from France," Izu explained.

However, Izu acknowledges¹³ that Pamplona is still using Hemingway to gain attention. "We made him into a sort of Sanfermines icon¹⁴," he said.

But not every foreigner at the festival has been coming because of Hemingway. Australian William Kappal and his friends learned about Sanfermines by watching YouTube.

Asked if they had ever heard of Hemingway, Kappal said "Nah. Should we look him up?"

Words in This Story

gate –n. a large door

scarf –n. (pl. scarves) a piece of cloth worn around the neck

gore⁷ –v. to wounded by the horns of an animal

balcony –n. a raised structure on the side of a building from which people can look at the street below

blow away –v. (phrasal, informal) to be really affected by something; impressed

crazy –adj. wild, uncontrolled, not mentally healthy

ghost –n. the spirit of a person who has died

haunted –adj. to feel the presence of someone's spirit or of some feeling again and again

rent –v. to pay for the use of a living place, device or vehicle for a period of time

crucifix –n. a model of a cross with Jesus Christ crucified on it; a special religious image of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ

tourist –n. a person who travels for pleasure

 

icon –n. a person who is famous for his or her relationship with a place, thing or event

1 bull   

n.公牛，买进证券投机图利者，看涨的人

参考例句：

• It's only a hair off a bull's back to them.这对他们来说，不过九牛一毛。
• Many dogs closed around the bull.很多狗渐渐地把那只牛围了起来。

2 bulls   

n.公牛( bull的名词复数 )；法令；力大如牛的人；（象、鲸等动物的）雄兽

参考例句：

• Riding bulls is always an exciting event at a rodeo. 骑公牛总是放牧人竞技会上激动人心的表演。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Two white bulls were sacrificed and a feast was held. 献祭了两头白牛，并举行了盛宴。 来自辞典例句

3 feast   

n.盛宴，筵席，节日

参考例句：

• After the feast she spent a week dieting to salve her conscience.大吃了一顿之后，她花了一周时间节食以安慰自己。
• You shouldn't have troubled yourself to prepare such a feast!你不该准备这样丰盛的饭菜，这样太麻烦你了！

4 saint   

n.圣徒；基督教徒；vt.成为圣徒，把...视为圣徒

参考例句：

• He was made a saint.他被封为圣人。
• The saint had a lowly heart.圣人有谦诚之心。

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

6 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

7 gore   

n.凝血，血污；v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破；缝以补裆；顶

参考例句：

• The fox lay dying in a pool of gore.狐狸倒在血泊中奄奄一息。
• Carruthers had been gored by a rhinoceros.卡拉瑟斯被犀牛顶伤了。

8 gored   

v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破( gore的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was gored by a bull. 他被公牛顶伤。
• The bull gored the farmer to death. 公牛用角把农夫抵死了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 onlookers   

n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A crowd of onlookers gathered at the scene of the crash. 在撞车地点聚集了一大群围观者。
• The onlookers stood at a respectful distance. 旁观者站在一定的距离之外，以示尊敬。

10 lessened   

减少的，减弱的

参考例句：

• Listening to the speech through an interpreter lessened its impact somewhat. 演讲辞通过翻译的嘴说出来，多少削弱了演讲的力量。
• The flight to suburbia lessened the number of middle-class families living within the city. 随着迁往郊外的风行，住在城内的中产家庭减少了。

11 haunted   

adj.闹鬼的；受到折磨的；令人烦恼的v.“haunt”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• There was a haunted look in his eyes. 他眼中透露出忧虑的神色。
• The country is haunted by the spectre of civil war. 内战仿佛一触即发，举国上下一片恐慌。

12 popularity   

n.普及，流行，名望，受欢迎

参考例句：

• The story had an extensive popularity among American readers.这本小说在美国读者中赢得广泛的声望。
• Our product enjoys popularity throughout the world.我们的产品饮誉全球。

13 acknowledges   

v.承认( acknowledge的第三人称单数 )；鸣谢；对…打招呼；告知已收到

参考例句：

• Chagrin is not something a great man often acknowledges. 一位伟大的人物往往是不肯承认自己恼羞成怒的。 来自辞典例句
• The Daily Food Guide acknowledges this by identifying the fat-sweets group. 每日膳食指南通过鉴定脂肪一糖类确认了这一点。 来自互联网

14 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。