It was a picture of a little boy, seen from the back, standing on the fence outside the National Zoo, under a sign that reads “Zoo Temporarily Closed。” That picture has been the visual flavor du jour for at least 24 hours. “The iconic image of the shutdown,” it’s been called, and people have shamed the government for breaking a child’s heart。

照片里的小男孩兒，背對著鏡頭站在國家動物園的大鐵門外，門上貼著一個通知，“動物園暫時閉館”。這張圖片已經(jīng)成為網(wǎng)上最受喜愛的照片之一。它被稱為“美國政府關(guān)閉的諷刺景象”，人們紛紛譴責(zé)美國政府閉館讓孩子們失望了。

The shutdown has stopped medical research, called off food inspectors, and held up veterans’ benefits, and we are disregarding, even slighting all of these things if we presume to sum up the gravity of the situation in this single image of a child。

由于聯(lián)邦政府關(guān)門，醫(yī)學(xué)實驗中止了，食品檢察員制度被取消了，退役士兵的福利減少了。如果我們認(rèn)為這張小男孩的照片就可以概括事件的嚴(yán)重性的話，我們顯然忽視甚至無視了上述事實。

It helps that the iconography is simple: kid in an animal hat, zoo bars, Love Locked Out. It also helps that you can’t see the child’s face. The juxtaposition of sign and small body and quasi-narrative situation invites our projections. We assume that the child is forlorn, or that the picture is staged (it’s not)， or that the photographer was seeking to make a political point。

圖片中的意象很簡單，這有助于我們理解：帶著動物形狀帽子的小孩兒，動物園大門上的柵欄，被拒之門外的孩子的心，我們看不到孩子的臉，這一點也是有用意的，路標(biāo)、小男孩和不言自明的場景相互并置，引人聯(lián)想。我們猜想這孩子獨(dú)自一人， 猜想這張照片是人為設(shè)計好的，猜想拍攝這張照片的人想要表達(dá)某種政治觀點。

There is, it’s true, something scary, or sad, about this picture。

這張照片里有某種可怕或感傷的東西。

We've all heard the tragic stories of the unintended consequences of the shutdown — cancer patients denied treatments; military families who can't bury loved ones; mothers who can't feed their babies — but none will probably spread as far and wide as this kid in a bear costume being locked out of the National Zoo。

我們都聽說過了政府關(guān)閉政策無意間引起的不良后果：癌癥病患無法接受治療;烈士家屬不能將烈士遺體安葬;母親無法照顧自己的孩子——但上述這些都不會像這張帶著小熊帽子、被國家動物園拒之門外的小男孩的圖片那樣廣為傳播。