加菲貓迎來週年紀念日！它的年齡比我都大...
Garfield the cat, the star of Jim Davis' internationally popular comic strip, turns 40 today.
由吉姆·戴維斯創作的聞名於世的連環漫畫《加菲貓》在今天迎來了40週年紀念。
The cantankerous feline made his first appearance on 19 June 1978 when he was syndicated in 41 American newspapers.
這隻愛吵鬧的貓咪於1978年6月19日首次亮相，當時這部漫畫被出售給了41家美國報社。
By 1981, Garfield's popularity was such that he appeared in 850 papers. By 2002, the total was 2,570, giving him an approximate audience of 263m readers worldwide and a Guinness World Record for the world's most widely syndicated comic strip. Garfield also quickly became a commercial juggernaut , shifting between $750m and $1bn in merchandise annually.
到1981年，加菲貓的人氣使他登上了850家報刊。到2002年，連載這部漫畫的期刊共有2570家，這使得他在全球收穫了約2.63億名觀衆，而且這部漫畫還獲得了吉尼斯世界紀錄——全球刊載期刊最多的連環漫畫。加菲貓也迅速成爲強大的商業化漫畫形象，每年帶來7.5億~10億美元的收益。
The cat, who famously loves lasagne, hates Mondays and sheds fur copiously, is accompanied in the series by his owner Jon Arbuckle and fellow pets Odie the dog, Arlene and Nermal, his kitten cousin and nemesis.
這隻貓咪非常喜歡意式寬面，討厭星期一，而且還經常掉毛。在這部連環漫畫中，他和他的主人喬恩·阿布庫、寵物夥伴狗狗歐迪以及他的貓咪表親和死對頭阿琳和毛毛一起生活。
Davis had grown up surrounded by cats on a farm in Marion, Indiana – a background that parallels Jon Arbuckle’s, also a cartoonist by profession. Garfield was named after his creator's late grandfather.
戴維斯在印第安納州馬里昂的一個農場上在貓咪的環繞中長大，他的背景與加菲貓的主人喬恩·阿布庫很相似，他也是一名職業漫畫家。加菲貓是以作者已故祖父的名字命名的。
He was brought to television in the early 1980s, and he also appeared in two CGI feature films.
20世紀80年代早期，加菲貓被搬上熒屏，而且他還在兩部3D動畫電影中登場。
All of this has led to the character becoming one of the most recognisable in American cartoons, as famous as Charles Schulz’s Peanuts gang. A huge inflatable Garfield is a common sight as part of the Macy's Day Parade in New York City every Thanksgiving.
所有的這一切都使得加菲貓成爲美國漫畫知名度最高的形象之一，也使它變得與查爾斯·舒爾茨筆下的《花生漫畫（史努比系列漫畫）》一樣有名。每年的感恩節在紐約梅西百貨的感恩節遊行中都可以看到一個巨大的加菲貓充氣娃娃。
The character represents a soothing presence in a daily paper, his downbeat mood chiming neatly with that of his readers, just out of bed, clinging to their coffee mugs and dreading the working day ahead. His curmudgeonly nature, moderate misanthropy and unapologetic gluttony are all recognisable traits that have endeared him to millions.
加菲貓這一角色在日報中象徵着一種安慰性的存在，讀者們與他的悲觀情緒產生共鳴，起牀後，喝杯咖啡，擔心着一天的工作。他那小氣的天性、偶爾的憤世嫉俗以及毫無悔意的暴飲暴食都是人們常見的特點，這也使他受到了數百萬人的喜愛。
（翻譯：Dlacus）
