THE COMBINATION of causes of phenomena is beyond the grasp of the human intellect. —
现象的成因通常超出人类智力的理解能力。 —

But the impulse to seek causes is innate in the soul of man. —
但寻找成因的冲动是人类灵魂中的固有特性。 —

And the human intellect, with no inkling of the immense variety and complexity of circumstances conditioning a phenomenon, any one of which may be separately conceived of as the cause of it, snatches at the first and most easily understood approximation, and says here is the cause. —
人类的智力对于影响现象的复杂多变的环境因素一无所知，因此往往会抓住最容易理解的近似因素，并称其为成因。 —

In historical events, where the actions of men form the subject of observation, the most primitive conception of a cause was the will of the gods, succeeded later on by the will of those men who stand in the historical foreground—the heroes of history. —
在历史事件中，人们最初对成因的概念是神的意愿，后来转变为历史上的主角——历史英雄的意愿。 —

But one had but to look below the surface of any historical event, to look, that is, into the movement of the whole mass of men taking part in that event, to be convinced that the will of the hero of history, so far from controlling the actions of the multitude, is continually controlled by them. —
然而，只要深入观察任何历史事件，也就是观察整个参与事件的大众运动，就会意识到历史英雄的意愿绝非控制群众行动，而是被他们所控制。 —

It may be thought that it is a matter of no importance whether historical events are interpreted in one way or in another. —
或许有人认为将历史事件以一种方式解释与另一种方式解释无关紧要。 —

But between the man who says that the peoples of the West marched into the East, because Napoleon willed they should do so, and the man who says that that movement came to pass because it was bound to come to pass, there exists the same difference as between the men who maintained that the earth was stationary and the planets revolved about it, and the men who said that they did not know what holds the earth in its place, but they did know that there were laws controlling its motions and the motions of the other planets. —
然而，相较于那些声称西方人民向东进军是因为拿破仑的意愿的人，那些声称这个运动发生是因为它注定要发生的人，存在着与声称地球静止不动而行星绕其旋转的人与那些声称他们不知道地球是如何保持在原位的，但他们知道存在控制其运动及其他行星运动的定律的人相同的差异。 —

Causes of historical events—there are not and cannot be, save the one cause of all causes. —
历史事件的成因并不存在，也不可能存在，除了一切因果关系的根本因素。 —

But there are laws controlling these events; laws partly unknown, partly accessible to us. —
但是，存在着控制这些事件的定律，这些定律部分未知，部分可以被我们所理解。 —

The discovery of these laws is only possible when we entirely give up looking for a cause in the will of one man, just as the discovery of the laws of the motions of the planets has only become possible since men have given up the conception of the earth being stationary.
只有当我们完全放弃在某个人的意愿中寻找原因时，才有可能发现这些规律，就像只有在人们放弃地球静止的观念之后，才可能发现行星运动的规律。

After the battle of Borodino, and the taking and burning of Moscow, historians consider the most important episode of the war of 1812 to be the movement of the Russian army from the Ryazan to the Kaluga road and to the Tarutino camp, the so-called oblique march behind Krasnaya Pahra. Historians ascribe the credit of this stroke of genius to various persons, and dispute to whom it is rightfully due. —
在博罗金战役和莫斯科的夺取和烧毁之后，历史学家认为1812年战争最重要的事件是俄军从梁赞到卡卢加路，以及到塔鲁提诺营地的行军，即所谓的克拉斯纳亚帕赫拉的斜线行军。历史学家归功于各种人并争议归功于谁。 —

Even foreign, even French historians, admit the genius of the Russian generals when they mention this flank march. —
即使是外国，甚至是法国的历史学家在提及这个侧翼行军时也承认了俄罗斯将军的天才。 —

But why military writers, and others following their lead, assume this oblique movement to be a project profoundly planned by some one person for the deliverance of Russia and the overthrow of Napoleon it is very difficult to see. —
但是为什么军事作家和其他人都认为这个斜线行军是某个人深思熟虑的项目，旨在拯救俄罗斯并推翻拿破仑，这是非常难理解的。 —

It is difficult in the first place to see wherein the profound wisdom and genius of this march lies; for no great intellectual effort is needed to guess that the best position for an army, when not being attacked, is where supplies are most plentiful. —
首先很难看出这个行军的深度智慧和天才之处；因为想到，当一个军队不受攻击时，最有利的位置是供应最丰富的地方，并不需要太大的智力努力。 —

And every one, even a stupid boy of thirteen, could have guessed that the most advantageous position for the army in 1812, after the retreat from Moscow, would be on the Kaluga road. —
而且每个人，甚至是一个十三岁的愚蠢男孩都可以猜到，在1812年莫斯科撤退之后，军队最有利的位置应该是在卡卢加路上。 —

And so one cannot understand, in the first place, what conclusions led the historians to see some deep wisdom in this man? —
因此，人们首先无法理解历史学家是通过什么样的结论看到这个人有着某种深奥的智慧？ —

uvre. Secondly, it is even more difficult to understand why the historians ascribe to this man? —
其次，更加难以理解的是为什么历史学家将这个人归功于解救俄罗斯和推翻法国的行动； —

uvre the deliverance of Russia and the overthrow of the French; —
因为，如果其他情况在其之前、期间或之后发生，这个侧翼行动同样可能导致俄罗斯军队的毁灭和法国的解救。 —

for, had other circumstances preceded, accompanied, or followed it, this flank movement might as well have led to the destruction of the Russian army and the deliverance of the French. —
因此，这个侧翼行军被视为拯救俄罗斯和推翻法国的行动，这既难以理解，也难以解释。 —

If the position of the Russian army did, in fact, begin to improve from the time of that march, it does not at all follow that the improvement was caused by it.
如果事实上俄军的地位从那次行军开始改善，这并不意味着这种改善是由它引起的。

That oblique march might have been not simply of no use; —
这种曲线行军可能不仅没有用； —

it might have led to the destruction of the Russian army, but for the conjunction of other circumstances. —
除非与其他情况相结合，否则可能导致俄军的毁灭。 —

What would have happened if Moscow had not been burnt? If Murat had not lost sight of the Russians? —
如果莫斯科没有被烧毁，会发生什么？如果穆拉特没有失去对俄军的掌握？ —

If Napoleon had not remained inactive? If, as Bennigsen and Barclay advised, the Russians had given battle near Krasnaya Pahra? —
如果拿破仑没有保持不活动状态？如果俄军像本尼根和巴克莱建议的那样，在克拉斯纳亚帕赫拉附近发起战斗？ —

What would have happened if the French had attacked the Russians when they were marching behind Pahra? —
如果法军在俄军在帕赫拉后行军时发起进攻，会发生什么？ —

What would have happened if later on Napoleon, on reaching Tarutino, had attacked the Russians with one-tenth of the energy with which he had attacked them at Smolensk? —
如果拿破仑在到达塔鲁蒂诺后以攻击斯摩棱斯克时的十分之一的力量攻击俄军，会发生什么？ —

What would have happened if the French had marched to Petersburg? —
如果法军向圣彼得堡行军会发生什么？ —

… On any of these hypotheses, the oblique march might have led to ruin instead of to safety.
根据以上任何一种假设，这种曲线行军可能导致灭亡而不是安全。

The third point, most difficult of all to understand, is that students of history seem intentionally to refuse to see that this march cannot be ascribed to any one man, that no one foresaw it at any time, that, like the retreat to Fili, the man? —
第三点，最难理解的是，历史学家似乎故意看不到这种行军不能归因于任何一个人，任何时间都没有人预见到它，就像撤退到菲利一样，这个行动实际上从来没有被任何人完整地构思出来，而是从无数个最不同的情况中逐步产生的，并且只有当它成为事实并过去了，它才被完整地构思出来。 —

uvre was, in reality, never conceived of by any one in its entirety, but arose step by step, incident by incident, moment by moment from a countless multitude of the most diverse circumstances, and is only conceived of in its entirety, when it is an accomplished fact, and has become the past.
在菲利的会议上，俄国人普遍接受的想法是直线撤退，即沿着下尼日尼亚公路。

At the council at Fili the accepted idea among the Russians—the course taken for granted in fact—was retreat in a direct line back, that is, along the Nizhni road. —
这一点的证据是，在会议上，多数票是支持采取这一行动的，并且指挥官和兼籍部门负责人朗斯基在会议后的著名对话更加证明了这一点。 —

Evidence of this is that the majority of votes at the council were for adopting this course, and the commander-in-chief’s famous conversation after the council with Lansky, the head of the commissariat department, is an even more striking proof of it. —
证明这一点的证据是，在会议上，多数票是支持采取这一行动的，并且指挥官和兼籍部门负责人朗斯基在会议后的著名对话更加证明了这一点。 —

Lansky submitted to the commander-in-chief that the chief supplies for the army were stored along the Oka, in the Tula and Kazan provinces, and that if they retreated along the Nizhni road, the army would be cut off from its supplies by the broad river Oka, across which transport in the early winter was impossible. —
Lansky向总司令提出，军队的主要补给品存放在奥卡河沿岸的图拉和喀山省，如果他们沿着尼日尼公路撤退，军队将被宽阔的奥卡河切断供应线，且在初冬时期无法进行运输。 —

This was the first proof of the necessity of departing from the course that had at first seemed the most natural one, the retreat along the Nizhni road. —
这是第一个证明需要偏离一开始最自然的行进路线，即沿着尼日尼公路撤退的必要性的证据。 —

The army kept more to the south along the Ryazan road, closer to its supplies. —
军队更靠近供应地，沿着涅日扬公路向南方行军。 —

Later on the inactivity of the French, who positively lost sight of the Russian army, anxiety for the defence of the Tula arsenal, and above all, the advantage of being near their supplies led the army to turn even more to the south, to the Tula road. —
后来法军的不活跃，他们完全失去了俄军的踪迹，对图拉兵工厂的防守焦虑，以及最重要的是靠近补给地的优势，使得军队转向更南方，沿着图拉公路前进。 —

After crossing by a forced march behind Pahra to the Tula road, the generals of the Russian army intended to remain at Podolsk, and had no idea of the Tarutino position. —
在迫不得已地通过帕赫拉对Tula公路进行强渡后，俄军将领们打算留在波多尔斯克，并没有意识到塔鲁京地区的位置。 —

But an infinite number of circumstances, among them the reappearance of French troops on the scene, and plans for giving battle, and most of all, the abundance of supplies in Kaluga, led our army to turn even more to the south, and to pass from the Tula to the Kaluga road to Tarutino, a central position between their lines of communication with their supplies. —
但无数的情况之一，其中包括法军再次出现在战场上，以及战斗计划和最重要的是卡卢加地区的充足补给，使得我们的军队更加向南转移，从图拉公路转到卡卢加公路，到达塔鲁京，这是他们与供应线之间的中心位置。 —

Just as it is impossible to answer the question what date Moscow was abandoned, it is impossible too to say precisely when and by whom it was decided to move the army to Tarutino. —
就像回答莫斯科何时被遗弃的问题一样，精确地说出决定将军队转移到塔鲁京是在何时以及由谁决定的也是不可能的。 —

It was only after the army, through the action of innumerable infinitesimally small forces, had been brought to Tarutino, that people began to protest to themselves that that was the course they had desired, and had long foreseen as the right one.
只有在军队通过无数微小力量的作用被带到塔鲁京后，人们才开始对自己反驳，认为那是他们所期望的，并且早就预见到的正确行进路线。