SOME TENS OF THOUSANDS of men lay sacrificed in various postures and uniforms on the fields and meadows belonging to the Davidov family and the Crown serfs, on those fields and meadows where for hundreds of years the peasants of Borodino, Gorky, Shevardino, and Semyonovskoye had harvested their crops and grazed their cattle. —
几万名士兵以各种姿势和服装躺在戴维多夫家族和皇冠农奴的田地和草地上，在那些几百年来，博罗迪诺，戈尔基，谢瓦尔迪诺和谢米廖诺夫斯科耶的农民们收割庄稼和放牧牲畜的地方。 —

At the ambulance stations the grass and earth were soaked with blood for two acres round. —
在救护站周围的两英亩土地上，草坪和地面都被血液浸透。 —

Crowds of men, wounded and unwounded, of various arms, with panic-stricken faces, dragged themselves, on one side back to Mozhaisk, on the other to Valuev. —
人群中，有受伤和未受伤的士兵，手忙脚乱地朝莫斯海斯克撤退，朝瓦卢耶夫前进。 —

Other crowds, exhausted and hungry, were led forward by their officers. —
其他群众则被他们的军官领导前进，疲惫和饥饿。 —

Others still held their ground, and went on firing.
仍然坚守阵地，并且继续开火。

Over all the plain, at first so bright and gay with its glittering bayonets and puffs of smoke in the morning sunshine, there hung now a dark cloud of damp mist and smoke and a strange, sour smell of saltpetre and blood. —
整个平原上，一度在清晨阳光下闪烁着闪亮的刺刀和火药爆炸的烟雾，现在挂着一片阴云和潮湿的雾气，带着一股奇异的硝石和血腥气味。 —

Storm clouds had gathered, and a drizzling rain began to fall on the dead, on the wounded, on the panic-stricken, and exhausted, and hesitating soldiers. —
暴风雨乌云聚集，细雨开始落在死尸、受伤的人、惊慌失措、筋疲力尽、犹豫不决的士兵身上。 —

It seemed to say: “Enough, enough; cease. —
似乎在说：“够了，够了；停手吧。 —

… Consider. What are you doing?”
…想想，你在做什么？”

To the men on both sides, alike exhausted from want of food and rest, the doubt began to come whether they should still persist in slaughtering one another; —
对于双方因为食物和休息不足而筋疲力尽的士兵来说，疑虑开始涌到心头，他们是否还应该继续相互屠杀。 —

and in every face could be seen hesitation, and in every heart alike there rose the question: —
在每个人的脸上都可以看到犹豫，而每个人的心中都升起了一个问题： —

“For what, for whom am I to slay and be slain? —
“为了什么，为了谁我要去杀戮和被杀戮？ —

Slay whom you will, do what you will, but I have had enough! —
你想杀谁就杀谁，你想做什么就做什么，但我已经受够了！” —

” This thought took shape towards evening in every heart alike. —
这个念头在傍晚时分在每个人的心中都变得明确。 —

Any minute all those men might be horror-stricken at what they were doing, might throw up everything and run anywhere.
任何一分钟，所有这些人都可能因为他们正在做的事情而感到恐惧，并且可能放弃一切，到任何地方逃走。

But though towards the end of the battle the men felt all the horror of their actions, though they would have been glad to cease, some unfathomable, mysterious force still led them on, and the artillerymen—the third of them left—soaked with sweat, grimed with powder and blood, and panting with weariness, still brought the charges, loaded, aimed, and lighted the match; —
但是尽管战斗快结束时，士兵们感觉到了他们行动的恐怖，虽然他们很想停下来，但一种不可理解的、神秘的力量仍然引导着他们前进，而炮兵中的三分之一依然汗流浃背，被火药和鲜血弄得脸上蒙上了灰尘，气喘吁吁地继续装填、瞄准和点燃引线； —

and the cannon balls flew as swiftly and cruelly from each side and crushed human flesh, and kept up the fearful work, which was done not at the will of men, but at the will of Him who sways men and worlds.
炮弹从两方面飞来，无情地碾碎人类的血肉，继续着可怕的工作，这不是人类的意愿，而是掌控众生和世界的至高者的意愿；

Any one looking at the disorder in the rear of the Russian army would have said that the French had but to make one slight effort more and the Russian army would have been annihilated; —
任何看到俄军后方失序景象的人都会说，法军只需要再做最后点努力，俄军就会被彻底消灭； —

and any one seeing the rear of the French army would have said that the Russians need but make a slight effort more and the French would be overthrown. —
而任何看到法军后方的人都会说，俄军只需要再稍微努力一点，法军就会被击败； —

But neither French nor Russians made that effort, and the flame of the battle burnt slowly out.
但法军和俄军都没有作出那样的努力，战争的烈焰缓缓燃尽；

The Russians did not make this effort, because they were not attacking the French. —
俄军之所以没有作出这个努力，是因为他们并没有攻击法军； —

At the beginning of the battle they merely stood on the road to Moscow, barring it to the French; —
在战斗开始时，他们只是站在通往莫斯科的道路上，拦阻法军； —

and they still stood at the end of the battle as they had at the beginning. —
而战斗结束时，他们依然站在那里，就像一开始一样； —

But even if it had been the aim of the Russians to drive back the French, they could not have made this final effort, because all the Russian troops had been routed; —
但即使俄军的目标是要击退法军，他们也无法作出这最后的努力，因为所有的俄军部队都已被击溃； —

there was not a single part of the army that had not suffered in the battle, and the Russians, without being driven from their position, lost ONE HALF of their army.
在战斗中，没有一个部队没有遭受损失，而且俄军并没有被驱逐出他们的阵地，却失去了一半的军队；

For the French, with the memory of fifteen years of victories, with confidence in Napoleon’s all-vanquishing genius, with the consciousness of having taken a part of the battlefield, of having only lost a fourth of their men, and of having a body of twenty thousand—the Guards— intact—it would have been an easy matter to make this effort. —
对法军来说，拥有十五年胜利的记忆，对拿破仑无往不胜的天才的信心，意识到已经占据战场的一部分，只失去了四分之一的兵力，还有一支完整的二万人的卫队，他们轻而易举地可以作出这个努力。 —

The French, attacking the Russian army with the object of driving it from its position, ought to have made this effort, because as long as the Russians still barred the way to Moscow, as before the battle, the aim of the French had not been attained, and all losses and exertions had been in vain. —
法国人攻击俄军的目的是想将其赶出阵地，他们应该使出努力，因为只要俄军仍然挡住通往莫斯科的道路，法国的目标就没有达到，所有的损失和努力都是徒劳的。 —

But the French did not make that effort. —
但法国人没有做出这种努力。 —

Some historians assert that if Napoleon had only let his Old Guard advance, the battle would have been gained. —
一些历史学家声称，如果拿破仑让他的老卫队前进，战斗就会胜利。 —

To talk of what might have happened if Napoleon had let his Guard advance is much the same as to talk of what would happen if spring came in autumn. —
谈论如果拿破仑让他的卫队前进会发生什么，就好像谈论秋天会发生什么事情一样。 —

That could not have been. Napoleon did not do so, not because he did not want to, but because it was impossible to do so. —
那是不可能的。拿破仑没有这样做，不是因为他不想，而是因为这是不可能的。 —

All the generals, officers, and soldiers of the French army knew that it was impossible to make this final effort, because the flagging spirit of the troops did not allow of it.
法国军队的所有将领、军官和士兵都知道这种最后努力是不可能的，因为士兵疲惫不堪的精神不允许这样做。

It was not Napoleon alone who had that nightmare feeling that the mighty arm was stricken powerless: —
不仅仅是拿破仑一个人感到强大的力量变得毫无助力： —

all the generals, all the soldiers of the French army, those who fought and those who did not, after all their experiences of previous battles (when after one-tenth of the effort the enemy had always run), showed the feeling of horror before this foe, who, after losing ONE HALF of the army, still stood its ground as dauntless at the end as at the beginning of the battle. —
法国军队的所有将领、所有士兵，无论是战斗过的还是没有战斗过的，在之前的战斗中都有过这种恐惧感（当敌人只付出十分之一的努力时，敌人总是逃跑），面对这个敌人，即使损失了一半的军队，仍然坚守原地，就像战斗开始时一样坚不可摧。 —

The moral force of the French, the attacking army, was exhausted. —
攻击的法国军队的士气已经耗尽。 —

Not the victory, signalised by the capture of rags on the end of sticks, called flags, or of the ground on which the troops were standing, but a moral victory, that which compels the enemy to recognise the moral superiority of his opponent, and his own impotence, was won by the Russians at Borodino. —
不是通过战斗中捕获的一些布条，也不是通过占领士兵站立的土地，而是一种道义上的胜利，迫使敌人承认对手的道义上的优势和自己的无力，这是俄罗斯在博罗季诺获得的胜利。 —

The French invading army, like a ravening beast that has received its death-wound in its onslaught, felt its end near. —
入侵的法国军队就像一只在进攻中受到致命伤的凶猛野兽，感到自己的终结已经近在眼前。 —

But it could not stop, no more than the Russian army—of half its strength—could help retreating. After that check, the French army could still drag on to Moscow, but there, without fresh effort on the part of the Russian army, its ruin was inevitable, as its life-blood ebbed away from the deadly wound dealt it at Borodino. —
1，但是它无法停止，就像俄罗斯军队一样——即便是半数实力——也无法停止撤退。经过这次阻击后，法国军队仍然能够艰难地前往莫斯科，但是如果没有俄罗斯军队再次出击，法国军队的覆灭将是不可避免的，就像它在博罗季诺收到的致命伤口正在流失着它的生命力一样。 —

The direct consequence of the battle of Borodino was Napoleon’s cause-less flight from Moscow, his return by the old Smolensk road, the ruin of the invading army of five hundred thousand men, and the downfall of the Napoleonic rule, on which, for the first time at Borodino, was laid the hand of a foe of stronger spirit.
2，博罗季诺战役的直接后果是拿破仑毫无原因地逃离莫斯科，通过旧斯摩棱斯克道路返回，五十万侵略军队的覆灭，以及拿破仑统治的下台，在这里，第一次有了更强大精神的敌人将其打垮。