by Nik Peachey

A good circus has always built its reputation on its ability to amaze and entertain and what could be more amazing than a flea circus? But does such a thing really exist and can fleas really be taught to perform circus tricks?
一個(gè)好的馬戲團(tuán)的名聲總是建立在給觀眾帶來(lái)震撼且精彩的表演。還有什么比跳蚤馬戲團(tuán)更讓人激動(dòng)的事嗎？但是這樣的事情真的存在嗎？跳蚤馬戲團(tuán)雜技炫酷的雜技是如何被訓(xùn)練出來(lái)的？

Many British people of my generation probably remember watching their first flea circus on Michael Bentine's Potty Time. Potty Time was a children's TV programme which featured comedian Michael Bentine and a group of puppets. Even as a child I never once thought that the flea circus which was featured on his show involved real fleas, and quite probably it didn't, so imagine my surprise when I read an article in a British newspaper about a group of performing fleas being denied entry to the UK by customs officers.
在我的那個(gè)年代，許多英國(guó)人也許記得他們?cè)邴溈?爾本廷的Potty Time觀看他們的第一場(chǎng)跳蚤馬戲團(tuán)。Potty Time是一個(gè)兒童電視節(jié)目，以邁克爾本廷和一群木偶為主。甚至少兒時(shí)期我也從來(lái)沒(méi)想過(guò)跳蚤馬戲團(tuán)節(jié)目有真的跳蚤。而且當(dāng)時(shí)非常驚訝的是，我在讀報(bào)紙時(shí)知道英國(guó)一馬戲團(tuán)在入境時(shí)竟然被英國(guó)海關(guān)拒絕。

The fleas and their trainer, Professor Maria Fernanda Cordoso, had been on their way to perform at the Edinburgh Festival, one of Scotland's most famous arts festivals, when customs officials decided that the Australian fleas in her troupe were illegal immigrants and would have to be sent back. According to the article, the trainer then had to find other local fleas and train them to perform the same act.
跳蚤馬戲團(tuán)和他們的訓(xùn)練者，瑪利亞教授，正準(zhǔn)備奔赴愛(ài)丁堡藝術(shù)節(jié)的路上。那是蘇格蘭最有名的藝術(shù)節(jié)，而海關(guān)認(rèn)定澳大利亞的馬戲團(tuán)是非法移民者，必須遣返。文章說(shuō)到，訓(xùn)練者只能找當(dāng)?shù)氐鸟R戲團(tuán)，并訓(xùn)練它們表演同樣的動(dòng)作。

On reading the article I decided to investigate more and discovered that flea circuses have a long history originating in England in the 16th century. They had something of a golden age in the 1830s when L. Bertolotto set up his flea exhibitions in London. His exhibitions featured a flea orchestra playing flea music, fleas playing card games, fleas dancing in dresses and even fleas that could pull miniature coaches! Flea circuses later became a regular feature of carnivals and circus side shows in the US and as late as the mid-1950s there was still a flea circus near Times Square in New York.
讀完那篇文章，我決定深入調(diào)查，并驚奇的發(fā)現(xiàn)跳蚤馬戲團(tuán)竟然可追溯到17世紀(jì)。它們是19世紀(jì)40年代黃金時(shí)代的產(chǎn)物，當(dāng)初貝托羅陀在倫敦建立了第一個(gè)跳蚤表演。他的展示以跳蚤樂(lè)團(tuán)表演，紙牌表演，以及跳蚤盛裝跳舞為主，甚至還有跳蚤花車游行。跳蚤馬戲團(tuán)后來(lái)成為美國(guó)常規(guī)的嘉年華活動(dòng)，到了20世紀(jì)50年代中期，紐約時(shí)代廣場(chǎng)上也有一個(gè)跳蚤馬戲團(tuán)。

Training fleas can be very difficult, but there are a few methods that have proven successful. You can limit the height of their jump, if you put a glass ceiling above them, as they don't like to bump their heads. There are also chemicals that they don't like. These can be put on a small ball and put among a group of fleas. The fleas will push the ball away with their legs and give the illusion that they are playing football. Fleas are also very sensitive to heat and light and this can be used to manipulate the fleas to give the appearance that they are well-trained performers. It's also believed that the flea orchestras of the past were in fact live fleas that were glued to their seats. The majority of fleas in the flea circus are, however, dead. They can be attached to their circus equipment and manipulated with the use of magnets. This has the added benefit that fleas, which have a very short life, then don't need to be continuously trained and replaced.
訓(xùn)練跳蚤很困難，但是有幾個(gè)被證實(shí)過(guò)的成功案例，你可以放一個(gè)天花板在它們頭上，這樣你就可以限制他們跳的高度了，這是因?yàn)樗鼈儾幌矚g撞到頭。有趣的是他們還有不喜歡的化學(xué)物質(zhì)。在一群跳蚤里放進(jìn)一個(gè)小球。跳蚤會(huì)用腳推球，人們會(huì)以為它們似乎在踢足球。跳蚤也對(duì)溫度和光很敏感，利用這點(diǎn)可以控制跳蚤，以此來(lái)證明它們有受到較好的訓(xùn)練。過(guò)去，跳蚤會(huì)被粘在椅子上。但是，絕大多數(shù)的跳蚤會(huì)在這個(gè)過(guò)程中死掉。它們會(huì)被磁鐵操控。不過(guò)這倒有個(gè)好處是，跳蚤的壽命很短，這樣就不用不斷被訓(xùn)練和替換了。

So how did something as unlikely as a flea circus become a major event at one of Britain's most prestigious performing arts festivals? Well Cordoso's flea act sounds truly incredible, even by circus standards. Her fleas perform in miniature costumes created with the help of Philadelphia's Fabric Workshop and Museum. They tango, walk tightropes, perform trapeze acts and Brutus the strongest flea on earth is even shown pulling a train. The high point of the performance is the projection of a film which was made using special lenses to magnify the fleas' feats to huge proportions and features a tribute to the Fearless Alfredo who is shown diving from a great height into a thimble of water and tragically missing. Perhaps even more incredible is the trainer herself. The exotically beautiful Colombian-born Maria Fernanda Cordoso is a sculptor, installation artist and graduate of Yale University. She spent four years researching the lost art of flea training and is now regarded as a world expert. She appears at the performances in a brightly coloured shimmering costume with a magnifying visor and fires flea cannon balls into a tiny flea net. The performance also features the fleas feeding from her bare arm.
那么，像跳蚤馬戲團(tuán)這樣不太可能的事情都演變成英國(guó)最有名的表演藝術(shù)盛會(huì)，這是如何做到的？克多索的跳蚤表演聽起來(lái)很棒，甚至是以馬戲團(tuán)的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)來(lái)說(shuō)。她們的跳蚤表演穿著漂亮的微型衣服，這些衣服均由費(fèi)城紡織品作坊和博物館制作。它們跳探戈，走鋼絲，表演飛人和布魯特斯。世界上最強(qiáng)壯的跳蚤甚至可以拉動(dòng)一列火車。表演的高潮是使用特殊鏡頭，把跳蚤放大近距離觀看、無(wú)畏者阿爾弗雷多從一個(gè)相當(dāng)高的地方潛入水中并下落不明。也許最棒的是訓(xùn)練者是她們自己本人。瑪利亞出生在哥倫比亞，她是一個(gè)雕刻家，裝置藝術(shù)家，并且是耶魯大學(xué)的研究生，他花了四年的時(shí)間研究跳蚤失傳的訓(xùn)練法。在這個(gè)領(lǐng)域，她在世界可謂專家。她穿著鮮艷且閃閃發(fā)光的服裝進(jìn)行表演，手持放大鏡，并借用太陽(yáng)光點(diǎn)燃小小跳蚤炮彈。表演中還展現(xiàn)了跳蚤在她赤裸的臂膀上喂食的場(chǎng)景。

Well, if this article has left you itching to find out more, here are some little known facts about fleas:
好吧，如果這篇文章挑起你對(duì)跳蚤的興趣，來(lái)看看這些關(guān)于跳蚤的小知識(shí)。

? There is a flea in a Kiev museum that wears horseshoes made of real gold.

? 在基輔博物館有一只腳踩純金馬蹄鐵的跳蚤。

? A flea can pull up to 160,000 times its own weight.

? 一只跳蚤可以拉得動(dòng)160,000倍自身重量的物品。

? A flea can jump over 150 times its own size. If a man had the same strength, he could jump over St Paul's Cathedral.

? 一只跳蚤可以跳過(guò)它自己身長(zhǎng)150倍的距離。 如果一個(gè)人有類似的技能，他可以跳到圣保羅大教堂。

? When jumping, the flea accelerates 50 times faster than the space shuttle.

? 跳躍時(shí)，跳蚤可瞬時(shí)加速50倍，比航天飛機(jī)還快。

? A flea can jump 30,000 times without a break.

? 一只跳蚤能跳30000次，中間不休息。

? Dead fleas dressed as wedding couples were popular collectors' items in the 1920s.

? 20世紀(jì)20年代流行收藏打扮成結(jié)婚夫婦的死跳蚤。

? Fleas are attracted by carbon dioxide.

? 跳蚤喜歡二氧化碳。

? Fleas alternate the direction of their jumps.

? 跳蚤可自我調(diào)整跳躍的方向。