A skeleton briefly sat in for Copenhagen's beloved Little Mermaid, who left her spot in the harbour on March 25 for China, the museum behind the April Fool's prank said on April 1. “Copenhagen will be deprived of its Little Mermaid for six months, and we thought we should replace it. It's April Fools, after all！” Hanne Strager, the head of exhibitions at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, told AFP.
哥本哈根心愛的小美人魚3月25日離開她坐鎮的港口前往中國大陸，一副骷髏短暫代班坐鎮，幕後主導這次愚人節惡作劇的博物館，在4月1日當天表示：「哥本哈根將失去小美人魚6個月之久，我們認為應找個東西頂替。畢竟這是愚人節，開個玩笑，無傷大雅！」丹麥自然史博物館展覽部主任漢妮．史特拉格告訴法新社。
The replacement - which even had a skeleton fish tail - was placed in the same position as the Little Mermaid and sat in her vacant spot for two hours, to the delight of tourists. “Half of the mermaid was built with a human skeleton, and the other with a swordfishtail,” Strager said. “Many passers-by thought it was really funny and jumped in front of the mermaid to have their pictures taken.”
替代品甚至有個魚尾骨架，就放在小美人魚同一個位置，在她騰出來的空位上代班2小時，遊客見狀都很高興。「美人魚有一半用人的骨骼構成，另一半則搭旗魚尾骨。」史特拉格說：「很多路人覺得很有趣，跳到美人魚骨前拍照留念。」
The real Little Mermaid statue left Copenhagen to be the centrepiece of the Danish pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai until October 31. It was the first time the iconic sculpture left her perch at the entry of the Copenhagen harbour since she was placed there almost a century ago.
真正的小美人魚雕像離開哥本哈根後，將成為2010年上海世博會丹麥館鎮館之寶，直到10月31日為止。這也是這個標誌性雕塑，近100年前安置在哥本哈根港口後，首次離開她的寶座。
Her skeleton replacement was introduced to the media in a prank statement that said the Little Mermaid “had returned”. The statement claimed it was the only remaining complete skeleton of a “Hydronymphus pesci”, a species said to be extinct since the end of the 17th century. It claimed to have acquired the remains at the beginning of the 18th century, and that the only other skeleton of the specimen, in Saint Petersburg's Hermitage museum, was “not as complete as Copenhagen's” because of its missing tail.
在介紹頂替她的骷髏給媒體時，不忘發表搞笑聲明，聲稱小美人魚「借骨還魂」。這項聲明並稱，這是僅存唯一一副完整的「水美人魚」骨骸，一個17世紀末滅絕的物種。它並稱，這副遺骸18世紀初取得；而另外唯一一副骨架標本，目前存放聖彼得堡的冬宮博物館，由於少了尾巴，「不像哥本哈根這副這麼完整」。
After basking in the Copenhagen sun for two hours, the fake skeleton was returned to the museum where it would be displayed during the Easter holidays, Strager said.
沐浴在哥本哈根陽光下2小時後，這副山寨版骨骸已送回博物館，並於復活節假期在館內展示，史特拉格說。
The Little Mermaid statue is based on a character in an 1837 fairytale by author Hans Christian Andersen about a half-human half-fish legendary creature in love with a human. The mermaid is a sea king's daughter who falls in love with a prince and must wait 300 years to become human. It was turned into a Disney film in 1989.
小美人魚雕像以作家安徒生1837年的童話為藍本，敘述半人半魚的傳奇物種愛上人類的故事。美人魚是海王的女兒，她愛上一個王子，但必須等到300年後才會變成人類。這個童話故事並在1989年由迪士尼改拍成電影。
Edvard Eriksen's 1913 sculpture, measuring 125 centimetres and weighing 175 kilos, is considered a national treasure and one of the main tourist attractions in Denmark. Over the years the statue has repeatedly been targeted by vandals: she's been decapitated, covered in paint and had her right arm cut off. The exact travel itinerary of the statue is being kept secret for security reasons, but it is scheduled to be placed in the Danish pavilion about a week before the World Expo opens May 1.
名雕刻家愛瑞克森1913年所雕的這座雕像，高125公分，重175公斤，被視為丹麥國寶，也是丹麥主要旅遊景點之一。多年來，雕像曾多次淪為野蠻破壞文物者攻擊的目標：她曾被斬首，噴漆，切斷右臂。雕像確切的運送行程，基於安全考量對外保密，但預計將在5月1日世博會開幕前一周安置在丹麥館內。
The temporary move is controversial in Denmark, where some considered it disrespectful to ship a cultural treasure halfway across the globe as a PR tool. Critics suggested the government should have sent a copy to China - an idea dismissed by Christopher Bo Bramsen, Danish commissioner-general for Expo 2010. “Why send a copy when you can send the real thing？” he told The Associated Press.
這項臨時性安排在丹麥引起爭議，當地有些人認為，把文化寶藏當公關工具，用船運途到半個地球外有欠尊重。批評者建議政府，應該送山寨版到中國大陸，但這個想法被2010年上海世博會丹麥總幹事〔丹麥前駐中國大使〕白慕申駁回，他告訴美聯社：「明明可以送真品參展，何必送山寨版？」
Hundreds of people who had gathered for the departure watched as a large crane hoisted the statue about 3 meters and slowly moved it over to the truck. The mermaid and the rock she rests on had been cut loose from the boulders beneath them a day earlier.
數百人聚在哥本哈根港口送別小美人魚，他們眼看著一個大型起重機吊起雕像，懸空3公尺，再慢慢移送到卡車上。美人魚和和她棲身的岩石，前一天已先和下面的大圓石切割。
“I think they should keep her there. She doesn't represent Danish life in the 21st century they should have sent something else,” said Sarah Ahmed, a 16-year-old student in the crowd. Anne-Marie Henning, 92, said she would miss the mermaid. “I have been coming here for years as I live in the neighborhood. It will feel strange without her,” Henning said.
「我覺得他們應該讓她留在那裡。她已經不能代表丹麥21世紀的生活了，他們應該送其他（更有代表性）的東西。」在人群中的16歲學生莎拉．艾哈邁德說。92歲的安妮─瑪麗．亨寧則說，她會很想念美人魚：「因為我住在附近，多年來，我常來這裡。少了她，感覺怪怪的。」
A video installation by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will replace the Little Mermaid until the statue returns in November. The multimedia artwork will include a live broadcast of the statue in Shanghai. “I have been looking forward to seeing her with my own eyes,” said 56-year-old Zhang Zexiang, a construction worker at the Denmark Pavilion. He said many of his co-workers had read or heard of Andersen's fairy tales when they were children. “When we knew the pavilion will be the new home for the Little Mermaid, expectations and imagination became an impetus to work,” he said.
中國藝術家艾未未的錄影裝置藝術作品將取代美人魚雕像，直到11月雕像返鄉為止，這項多媒體藝術作品將包括在上海世博會雕像展出的現場直播。「我一直期待能親眼看到她。」丹麥館56歲的建築工人章澤祥說。他並表示，很多同事小時候曾看過或聽說安徒生的童話故事。他說：「當我們知道新館將是小美人魚的新家時，期望和想像使我們更賣力工作。」
Photo shows a mermaid skeleton placed on the rock（right） for two hours on April 1 where Copenhagen's famous “Little Mermaid” statue（left） habitually sits.
圖為哥本哈根遠近馳名的小美人魚雕像平常坐的位子（左），4 月1日暫時換上美人魚骸骨（右），展示了2個鐘頭。 （法新社）