NAPOLEON enters Moscow after the brilliant victory de la Moskowa: —
拿破仑在辉煌的莫斯科战役胜利后进入了莫斯科； —

there can be no doubt of the victory, since the French are left in possession of the field of battle. —
毫无疑问，这是一场胜利，因为法军仍然占据着战场； —

The Russians retreat and leave Moscow—well stocked with provisions, arms, implements, and countless riches—in the hands of Napoleon. —
俄军撤退并将莫斯科，一个充满粮食、武器、工具和无数财富的城市，交到了拿破仑手中； —

The Russian army, of one-half the strength of the French, during the course of a whole month makes no effort to attack. —
俄军的实力只有法军的一半，但在接下来的一个月里，他们没有采取任何攻击的行动； —

Napoleon’s position is most brilliant. One would have supposed that no great genius was needed with an army of double the strength to fall upon the Russian forces and destroy them, to negotiate an advantageous peace; —
拿破仑的处境非常卓越。人们本以为，在拥有双倍实力的军队面前，不需要太过聪明的将军，就能够进攻俄军并消灭他们，或者进行有利的和谈； —

or, in case of negotiations being refused, to make a menacing march upon Petersburg, or even, in case of failure in this, to return to Smolensk or to Vilna, or to remain in Moscow, to retain, in short, the brilliant position in which the French army now found themselves. —
或者，在和谈被拒绝的情况下，对圣彼得堡发起威胁性进军，甚至在这种情况下失败后，返回斯摩棱斯克或维尔纳，或者留在莫斯科，保持法军现在所处的卓越位置； —

To do all this it was only necessary to take the simplest and easiest measures: —
要做到这一切，只需要采取最简单和最容易的措施： —

to keep the soldiers from pillage, to prepare winter clothes (of which there was a supply in Moscow amply sufficient for the whole army), and regularly to collect the provisions, of which the supply in Moscow was, on the showing of the French historians, sufficient to feed the whole army for six months. —
避免士兵的掠夺行为，准备冬季衣物（莫斯科有足够供应整个军队的衣物），并定期收集粮食（据法国历史学家表示，莫斯科的粮食储备足够养活整个军队六个月）； —

Napoleon, the greatest of all military geniuses, with absolute power, as historians assert, over the army, did nothing of all this.
拿破仑，伟大的军事天才，拥有据史学家说绝对掌握军队的权力，却没有做出任何这样的措施；

Far from doing anything of the sort, he used his power to select out of all the various courses open to him the stupidest and most pernicious of all. —
与此相反，他利用自己的权力从各种可能的选择中挑选出了最愚蠢和最有害的一种； —

Of all the different things Napoleon might have done—spending the winter in Moscow, going to Petersburg, going to Nizhni-Novgorod, going back a little more to the north or to the south, by the road Kutuzov afterwards took—no course one can imagine could have been more ruinous for his army (as the sequel proved) than the one Napoleon actually did adopt; —
在拿破仑可能采取的不同行动中——在莫斯科过冬，去圣彼得堡，去下捏诺夫哥罗德，稍微往北或往南走，就像库图佐夫后来走的那样——没有一种方案可以比拿破仑实际采取的更加有害（后来事实证明）。 —

that is, the course of staying in Moscow till October, letting the troops plunder the town, then in hesitation leaving a garrison behind, marching out of Moscow, going to meet Kutuzov and not giving battle, turning to the right and going as far as Maley Yaroslavets, again refusing to risk a battle, and finally retreating, not by the road Kutuzov had taken, but by Mozhaisk and the Smolensk route through devastated country. —
即是说，停留在莫斯科直到十月，让军队抢掠城市，然后犹豫不决地留下一个要塞，离开莫斯科，去见面库图佐夫并且不进行战斗，向右转并且一直走到马列·亚罗斯拉韦茨，在那里再次拒绝冒战斗的风险，最终撤退，不是沿着库图佐夫所选择的道路，而是通过莫扎伊斯克和斯摩棱斯克的被摧毁的地区。 —

Let the most skilful tacticians, supposing that Napoleon’s object was the destruction of his army, try and devise a series of actions which could, apart from any measures that might be taken by the Russian forces, have ensured with such certainty the complete destruction of the whole French army as the course taken by Napoleon.
假设拿破仑的目标是摧毁他的军队，让最熟练的战术家们设想并制定一系列行动，这些行动可以确保除了俄罗斯军队可能采取的任何措施外，以与拿破仑所采取的方式同样可以确保完全摧毁整个法国军队。

This the genius Napoleon did. But to say that Napoleon ruined his army because he wanted to do so, or because he was very stupid, would be just as unjust as to say that Napoleon got his troops to Moscow because he wanted to, and because he was very clever and a great genius.
这就是天才拿破仑所做的。但是说拿破仑毁掉自己的军队是因为他愿意这样做，或者因为他非常愚蠢，就像说拿破仑把他的军队带到莫斯科是因为他愿意这样做，并且因为他非常聪明和伟大的天才一样，这样说是不公平的。

In both cases his personal activity, having no more force than the personal activity of every soldier, was merely coincidental with the laws by which the event was determined.
在两种情况下，他的个人活动没有比每个士兵的个人活动更有力量，仅仅是事件决定的法则与个人活动巧合了而已。

Quite falsely (and simply because the sequel did not justify Napoleon’s actions) do historians represent Napoleon’s faculties as flagging at Moscow. —
由于后续的发展没有证实拿破仑的行动，历史学家们错误地认为拿破仑在莫斯科的能力下降。 —

Just as before, and afterwards in the year 1813, he used all his powers and faculties to do the best for himself and his army, Napoleon’s activity at this time was no less marvellous than in Egypt, in Italy, in Austria, and in Prussia. —
就像以前和1813年以后一样，他全力以赴为自己和他的军队做到最好，拿破仑在这个时候的活动与他在埃及、意大利、奥地利和普鲁士一样令人惊叹。 —

We do not know with any certainty how real was the genius of Napoleon in Egypt, where forty centuries looked down upon his greatness, because all his great exploits there are recounted to us by none but Frenchmen. —
我们无法确定拿破仑在埃及的天才到底有多真实，因为他在那里的伟大壮举只有法国人告诉我们。 —

We cannot judge with certainty of his genius in Austria and Prussia, as the accounts of his doings there must be drawn from French and German sources. —
我们不能确定他在奥地利和普鲁士的天才，因为他在那里的行动的记载必须来自法国人和德国人的来源。 —

And the unaccountable surrender of corps of soldiers without a battle, and of fortresses without a siege, must dispose Germans to postulate Napoleon’s genius as the unique explanation of the war as it was waged in Germany. —
没有一场战斗的沦陷和没有一座城堡的围攻导致德国人不得不假定拿破仑的天才才是解释德国战争方式的唯一理由。 —

But we have, thank God, no need to plead his genius to cloak our shame. —
但是谢天谢地，我们没必要借拿破仑的天才来掩饰我们的耻辱。 —

We have paid for the right to look facts simply and squarely in the face, and that right we will not give up.
我们已经为了直面事实而付出了代价，而这个权利我们不会放弃。

His activity in Moscow was as marvellous and as full of genius as anywhere else. —
他在莫斯科的活动和他在其他任何地方一样神奇且充满天才。 —

Command upon command and plan upon plan was continually being issued by him from the time he entered Moscow to the time he left it. —
从他进入莫斯科到他离开的整个期间，他不断发布指令和计划。 —

The absence of the citizens and of a deputation, and even the burning of Moscow, did not daunt him. —
公民们的缺席和代表团的缺席，甚至莫斯科的焚烧也没有使他气馁。 —

He did not lose sight of the welfare of his army, nor of the doings of the enemy, nor of the welfare of the people of Russia, nor of the conduct of affairs at Paris, nor of diplomatic negotiations as to the terms of peace.
他没有忽视军队的幸福，敌人的行动，俄罗斯人民的幸福，巴黎事务的处理，以及有关和平条款的外交谈判。