英國開了一家“國家便便博物館”

There are museums devoted to pretty much everything: bad art, instant ramen, hair. Now there is a museum in southern England devoted to excrement.

世界上什么樣的博物館都有，有收藏爛藝術(shù)、方便面、還有毛發(fā)的。如今，英格蘭南部又有了一間致力于收集糞便的博物館。

The National Poo Museum, which opened in March at the Isle of Wight Zoo in Sandown, was created by a small group of artists from a collective called Eccleston George. The group, which usually makes interactive exhibits for schools and zoos, was looking for a new project that could generate a trickle of income for its artists. The idea for the museum originated when a member, Daniel Roberts, was walking on a country path in Sweden and happened upon some mysterious animal droppings.

“國家便便博物館”(National Poo Museum)今年三月在英國桑當(dāng)?shù)膽烟貚u動(dòng)物園(Isle of Wright Zoo)開幕，由名叫埃克萊斯頓?喬治(Eccleston George)的藝術(shù)家團(tuán)體中的幾個(gè)成員所創(chuàng)立。該團(tuán)體經(jīng)常為學(xué)校與動(dòng)物園制作互動(dòng)式展覽，而創(chuàng)館初衷是為了找個(gè)能給成員帶來一點(diǎn)收入的新項(xiàng)目。這是他們的成員丹尼爾?羅伯茨(Daniel Roberts)的主意，起因于他曾在瑞典的鄉(xiāng)間小路上散步時(shí)，看到的一些神秘的動(dòng)物糞便。

“Everyone stopped in their tracks to wonder what sort of poo it was,” Mr. Roberts said. “It ended up being from a lynx.”

“大家都停下腳步來猜想這是哪種便便，”羅伯茨說。“結(jié)果是山貓的。”

He was struck, he said, by how intrigued his companions were. “People are disgusted by poo, but there’s also this fascination with it,” he said. And so the National Poo Museum was born.

羅伯茨說，同伴們著迷的模樣觸動(dòng)了他。他表示：“大家都覺得大便很惡心，卻又無法不對(duì)它感到好奇。”國家便便博物館于焉誕生。

It is more of an exhibit than a museum, occupying a single room at the zoo, where it will be open until the end of the summer; after that, it will go on tour. It features 20 examples of feces from different animals, including pigeon, meerkat and lion. Each sample is suspended in a sphere of clear resin that can be illuminated with the touch of a button.

不過這間博物館比較像是一個(gè)展覽，只占了動(dòng)物園里一個(gè)廳的空間，開放時(shí)間到夏季結(jié)束為止。接下它會(huì)巡回各地展出。館內(nèi)展示了20種不同動(dòng)物的糞便樣本，包括鴿子、貓鼬，還有獅子。每個(gè)樣本都固定在透明樹脂球里，可以按鈕點(diǎn)亮燈光來觀看。

Before it is preserved this way, each sample must be dried. The bird droppings dried quickly, but a cowpat took about a week to dry out and the lion feces almost two weeks.

各個(gè)樣本在用這種方式保存之前，都要先干燥處理。鳥屎干得很快，牛糞團(tuán)要一周才能徹底干燥，獅子糞則要兩周時(shí)間。

One of the more interesting samples, from a herring gull, has a white object tangled in it.

在那些最引人入勝的樣本當(dāng)中，有一個(gè)來自銀鷗的糞便，里面纏著一個(gè)白色物體。

“The white part is the remnant of a plastic bag,” said Nigel George, one of the Eccleston George artists. “This tells a story of what human beings are doing to the ecology of a place.”

“那個(gè)白色的東西是塑膠袋殘余，”來自埃克萊斯頓?喬治的藝術(shù)家奈吉爾?喬治(Nigel George)表示。“這給我們講了個(gè)故事，說明人類對(duì)一個(gè)地方的生態(tài)會(huì)造成什么影響。”

The museum also features information on bowel cancer and the importance of keeping sewer pipes unblocked and unclogged, among other helpful tidbits about feces.

除了展出其他頗有裨益的排泄物趣聞，博物館也特別介紹了腸癌的相關(guān)資訊，以及保持下水道管線暢通的重要性。

“It’s had a huge resonance with kids,” said Bill Cane, another member of the collective. “The poop emoji is super popular now, and it seems to be riding quite a bit on that.”

“孩子們和這個(gè)地方產(chǎn)生了很大的共鳴，”這個(gè)藝術(shù)團(tuán)體另一名成員比爾?凱恩(Bill Cane)表示。“便便表情符號(hào)現(xiàn)在超火，我們的博物館似乎搭上了順風(fēng)車。”

In fact, Mr. Cane said, one of the children who visited the exhibit came clutching a plush-toy poop emoji.

凱恩表示，有個(gè)孩子來參觀的時(shí)候，手里還真抓著一個(gè)便便表情符號(hào)的玩偶。