When did this custom start? According to a well-researched story of the origin of the day, it was started in 1545 by a rather unfortunate accident. A Norwegian scientist, Loof Lirpa, was staying in London, where he was trying to find the secret of how to fly.
愚人節的風俗源于何時呢?據一個多方考證其起源的故事說，此風俗起源于1545年，是由一個不幸的事故引起的。一位叫盧夫•勒爾帕的挪威科學家當時住在英國的倫敦，想在那里找到飛行的秘密。
The scientist was eccentric, but there was no doubt that he was clever. It seems that his experiments were successful: King Henry VIII received a letter from Mr Lirpa, in which he announced that he had finally solved the secret of flight. He asked the king to be present at a demonstration flight at Westminster on April 1.
這位科學家性格古怪，但無疑他是很聰明的。他的飛行試驗似乎取得了成功，因為國王亨利八世收到了勒爾帕先生的信。信中說，他已找到了飛行的秘密，請國王于4月1日在威斯敏斯特宮看他的飛行表演。
So the king and the leading politicians of the day stood outside the Palace of Westminster on April 1 and waited for Mr Lirpa to come flying past. But nothing happened and it became the tradition afterwards to play tricks on people in the same way on this day.
因此，在4月1日那一天，國王和當時的政要站到宮外，等待勒爾帕先生飛過。但是，勒爾帕沒能從宮外飛過。據此，衍化出了這一天設騙局的傳統。
Recent evidence, however, shows that Loof Lirpa was not playing a trick: he was in fact telling the truth. He had learnt how to fly, the reason that he didn’t appear at Westminster was that his flying-machine had crashed into a tree, and he had been killed.
然而，最近證實，盧夫•勒爾帕并沒有設騙局，實際上他說的是實話。他確已學會飛行，但沒有出現在威斯敏斯特宮上空的原因是他的飛行器撞到了一棵樹上，他本人也喪生了。
It was a tragedy for science. Most people believe that the first airplane flew in 1903, but this is not true. It flew 358 years earlier in 1545. If Mr Lirpa had lived, our technology would now be much more advanced than it is.
這是科學史上的一個悲劇。大多數人認為第一次飛機飛行是在1903年，但事實并非如此。在此358年前的1545年，已有飛行器在空中飛行了。如果勒爾帕先生沒有喪生，我們今天的科學技術就先進得多了。
The scientist, unfortunately, was very secretive: he hadn’t kept any notes, and hadn’t trusted anyone else with the knowledge of how his flying-machine worked. When he died, the secret died with him.
遺憾的是，這位科學家保密太嚴了。他既沒留下任何文字資料，也沒把飛行器的知識傳授給別人，對誰也信不過。他死了，他保守的秘密也消失了。
Although most people in Britain haven’t heared of Lirpal, he is very famous in Norway. April 1 is a national holiday, and people remember his flying trip by having ski-jump competitions. They also eat a special Loof Lirpa cake, which was invented by the scientist, and consists of fish, bananas, honey and chocolate.
雖然大多數英國人沒聽說過盧夫•勒爾帕，但他在挪威很有名。4月1 日在挪威是個全國性的節日。人們用跳臺滑雪比賽來紀念勒爾帕的那次飛行。挪威人還吃一種特殊風味的盧夫•勒爾帕蛋糕，由魚、香蕉、蜂蜜和巧克力制成。這種蛋糕正式這位科學家發明的。
Actually, “Loof Lirpa” wasn’t his real name: if you say the two words backwards, you’ll find out what his name really was—April Fool.
實際上，Loof Lirpa (盧夫•勒爾帕)并非他的真姓名。如果你倒過來念他的姓名，就會發現他的真名是April Fool(四月的傻瓜).