MEANWHILE another column was to have fallen upon the French in the centre, but of this column Kutuzov was in command. —
与此同时，另一支队伍本应袭击法军中部，但库图佐夫指挥了这支队伍。 —

He knew very well that nothing but muddle would come of this battle, begun against his will, and, as far as it was in his power, he held his forces back. He did not move.
他非常清楚这场不情愿开始的战斗只会变成一团糟，所以他尽力地阻止部队前进。他没有行动。

Kutuzov rode mutely about on his grey horse, making languid replies to the suggestions for an attack.
库图佐夫骑在一匹灰马上，无言地绕着，对于发起攻击的建议只懒散地回应。

“You can all talk about attacking, but you don’t see that we don’t know how to execute complicated man? —
“你们都可以谈论进攻，但你们没有看出我们不知道如何执行复杂的战术，”他对恳求进攻的米洛拉多维奇说。 —

uvres,” he said to Miloradovitch, who was begging to be allowed to advance.
“我们早上无法活捉穆拉特，也无法及时就位；现在没什么可做的了！”他对另一个人说。

“We couldn’t take Murat alive in the morning, nor be in our places in time; —
当有报告告诉库图佐夫，现在有两个波兰营在法军后方，而根据哥萨克人之前的报告，那里并没有波兰人时，他在他身后斜眼望了一眼叶尔莫洛夫，他们自前一天起未交流过。 —

now there’s nothing to be done!” he said to another.
“他们一直恳请前进，提出各种方案，但一旦你开始做事，什么都准备不好，而且敌人早有准备。”

When it was reported to Kutuzov that there were now two battalions of Poles in the rear of the French, where according to the earlier reports of the Cossacks there had been none, he took a sidelong glance behind him at Yermolov, to whom he had not spoken since the previous day.
叶尔莫洛夫微微闭上眼皮，微笑着听到这些话。

“Here they are begging to advance, proposing projects of all sorts, and as soon as you get to work, there’s nothing ready, and the enemy, forewarned, takes his measures.”
他知道风暴已经经过他身上，库图佐夫不会超过那个暗示。

Yermolov half closed his eyelids, and faintly smiled, as he heard those words. —
“这是他捉弄我的小玩笑，”叶尔莫洛夫轻声说着，用膝盖碰了碰身边的拉夫斯基。 —

He knew that the storm had blown over him, and that Kutuzov would not go beyond that hint.
不久之后，叶尔莫洛夫走到库图佐夫面前，恭敬地提出：“时间还没有过去，殿下；敌人还没有离开。如果您命令前进，卫队才能看到烟雾。”

“That’s his little joke at my expense,” said Yermolov softly, poking Raevsky, near him, with his knee.
他听到这些话时，叶尔莫洛夫闭上了眼皮，微微一笑。

Soon after that, Yermolov moved forward to Kutuzov and respectfully submitted:
他知道风暴已经从他身上刮过，库图佐夫不会超过那个暗示。

“The time has not passed, your highness; the enemy has not gone away. —
“这是他捉弄我的小玩笑，”叶尔莫洛夫轻声说着，用膝盖碰了碰身边的拉夫斯基。 —

If you were to command an advance? Or else the guards won’t have a sight of smoke.”
不久之后，叶尔莫洛夫走到库图佐夫面前，恭敬地提出：“时间还没有过去，殿下；敌人还没有离开。如果您命令前进，卫队才能看到烟雾。”

Kutuzov said nothing, but when news was brought him that Murat’s troops were in retreat, he gave orders for an advance; —
库图佐夫没有说话，但当有人向他报告穆拉特的部队在撤退时，他下令前进； —

but every hundred paces he halted for three-quarters of an hour.
但每走100步他会停下三刻钟。

The whole battle was confined to what had been done by the Cossacks of Orlov-Denisov; —
整个战斗仅仅是奥尔洛夫-德尼索夫的哥萨克人所为； —

the rest of the troops simply lost a few hundreds of men for nothing.
其余的部队只是无谓地损失了几百人。

In consequence of this battle, Kutuzov received a diamond decoration; —
由于这场战斗，库图佐夫获得了一枚钻石奖章； —

Bennigsen, too, was rewarded with diamonds and a hundred thousand roubles; —
本尼格森也因此获得了钻石和十万卢布的奖励； —

and the other generals, too, received agreeable recognition according to their rank, and more changes were made on the staff.
其他将军们根据自己的军衔也收到了令人愉快的认可，并对幕僚进行了更多的改变。

“That’s how things are always done among us, everything topsy-turvy! —
“这就是我们一贯的做事方式，一切都颠倒了！ —

” the Russian officers and generals said after the battle of Tarutino; —
“俄罗斯的军官和将军们在塔鲁提诺战役后说； —

just as they say it nowadays, with an assumption that some stupid person had muddled everything, while we would have managed quite differently. —
就像他们现在说的那样，他们假设某个愚蠢的人将一切搞糟，而我们会完全不同。 —

But the men who speak like this either do not understand what they are talking of, or intentionally deceive themselves. —
但说这种话的人要么不理解他们在谈论什么，要么是故意欺骗自己。 —

Every battle—Tarutino, Borodino, Austerlitz—fails to come off as those who planned it expected it to do. —
每一场战斗，塔鲁提诺、博罗迪诺、奥斯特利茨，都没有像计划者期望的那样发生。 —

That is inevitable.
这是不可避免的。

An innumerable collection of freely acting forces (and nowhere is a man freer than on the field of battle, where it is a question of life and death) influence the direction taken by a battle, and that can never be known beforehand and never corresponds with the direction of any one force.
无数自由行动的力量（在战场上没有比生死更重要的问题）会影响战斗的方向，而这从来不能事先知晓，也永远不会与任何一种力量的方向相对应。

If many forces are acting simultaneously in different directions on any body, the direction of its motion will not correspond with any one of the forces, but will always follow a middle course, the summary of them, what is expressed in mechanics by the diagonal of the parallelogram of forces.
如果许多力量同时在任何物体上以不同的方向作用，那么它的运动方向将不会与任何一种力量相对应，而总是遵循中间的路径，也就是力学中的力的平行四边形的对角线所表示的那个方向。

If in the accounts given us by historians, especially by French ones, we find that wars and battles appear to follow a definite plan laid down beforehand, the only deduction we can make from that is that these accounts are not true.
如果根据历史学家的记载，特别是法国历史学家的记载，我们发现战争和战斗似乎是按事先制定的明确计划进行的，那么我们唯一能得出的结论是这些记载并不真实。

The battle of Tarutino obviously failed to attain the aim which Toll had in view: —
塔鲁京诺的战斗明显未能达到托尔预期的目标： —

to lead the army into action in accordance with his disposition of the troops, or the aim which Count Orlov-Denisov may have had: —
根据托尔对部队的部署所要求的行动，或者奥尔洛夫-德尼索夫伯爵可能有的目标： —

to take Murat prisoner; or the aim of destroying at one blow the whole corps, which Benningsen and others may have entertained; —
捕获穆拉特的目标；或者本宁森和其他人可能抱有的一举击败整个军团的目标； —

or the aim of the officer who desired to distinguish himself under fire; —
或者某位军官希望在战火中彰显自己的目标； —

or the Cossack, who wanted to obtain more booty than he did attain, and so on. —
或者某个哥萨克想要获得比他实际得到的更多掠夺品等等。 —

But if we regard the object of the battle as what was actually accomplished by it, and what was the universal desire of all Russians (the expulsion of the French from Russia and the destruction of their army), it will be perfectly evident that the battle of Tarutino, precisely in consequence of its incongruities, was exactly what was wanted at that period of the campaign. —
但是，如果我们将战斗的目的看作是实际完成的事情，并且是所有俄国人（将法国人从俄国驱逐出去并摧毁他们的军队）普遍渴望的目标，那么很明显，塔鲁京诺的战斗正是在战役的那个阶段所需要的，正因为它的不连贯。 —

It is difficult or impossible to imagine any issue of that battle more in accordance with that object than its actual result. —
很难或者说不可能想象出与该目标更为吻合的战斗结果。 —

With the very smallest effort, in spite of the greatest muddle, and with the most trifling loss, the most important results in the whole campaign were obtained—the transition was made from retreat to attack, the weakness of the French was revealed, and the shock was given which was all that was needed to put Napoleon’s army to flight.
尽管情况混乱，付出的努力最小，损失最小，但却取得了整个战役中最重要的成果——从撤退转入进攻，揭示了法军的弱点，给予了需要的冲击，使拿破仑的军队转败为胜。