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All three books consider how mastery of the horse empowered the people who first achieved it in the third millennium BC.
这三本书都探讨了在公元前3000年，驭马技术如何让首次掌握这一技术的人获得权力。
Their homeland was the Pontic-Caspian steppe, the vast grasslands north of the Black and Caspian seas.
这些人的家园是东欧大草原，即黑海和里海以北的广袤草原。
Using horses for food, transport and warfare provided mobility and an edge over others.
将马用于食用、运输和战争让他们有了机动性和比其他人更大的优势。
One result is that their language, Proto-Indo-European, forms the root of tongues spoken by 46% of people today, such as Bengali and Portuguese.
一个结果是他们的语言，即原始印欧语，构成了当今世界46%的人所说语言的根源，比如孟加拉语和葡萄牙语。
Their genetic imprint stamps 40-50% of Europeans.
他们的基因印记留在40%至50%的欧洲人身上。
Some 60-90% of men on the Indian subcontinent can trace patrilineal DNA back to these early horsemen.
大约60%至90%的印度次大陆男性的父系DNA可以追溯到这些早期骑手身上。（注：印度次大陆即亚欧大陆喜马拉雅山脉以南部分，包括印度、巴基斯坦、尼泊尔、不丹、孟加拉国、斯里兰卡等国家。）
Superior horses and horsemanship continued to determine sweeping population movements.
优越的马匹和马术继而决定了大规模人口流动。
By around 2000 BC horses had trampled older civilisations across Europe and India, such as those that built Stonehenge in England and Mohenjodaro in the Indus Valley.
在大约公元前2000年，马已经踏平毁灭了欧洲和印度的更古老文明，比如在英格兰建造巨石阵的文明和在印度河流域建造摩亨佐-达罗古城的文明。
Mastery of mounts brought the Huns into Europe (around 370 AD), the Arabs into Spain (711 AD) and the Turks into India (1020 AD) and Anatolia (1071 AD).
对骑马术的掌握使匈奴人进入欧洲（约公元370年），使阿拉伯人进入西班牙（公元711年），使土耳其人进入印度（公元1020年）和安纳托利亚高原（公元1071年）。（注：安纳托利亚高原是亚欧分界线，现土耳其境内。）
Horses also spread the vast Mongol armies under Genghis Khan across nearly the whole of the Eurasian land mass, including China (around 1200 AD).
马还让成吉思汗率领的庞大蒙古军队遍布几乎整个欧亚大陆，其中包括中国（约公元1200年）。
In Europe feudalism and chivalry arrived on horseback, as did Napoleon’s troops.
在欧洲，封建主义和骑士精神是骑马而来的，拿破仑的军队也是如此。
According to Mr Winegard, in the French army’s disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1812 it was the loss of 200,000 horses, which could not be quickly replaced, rather than of half a million soldiers who could, that sealed the emperor’s fate.
瓦恩加德认为，在1812年法国军队从莫斯科的灾难性撤退中，决定了拿破仑皇帝命运的是20万匹马的覆没（无法迅速补充），而不是50万士兵的覆没（可以补充）。（注：此处指拿破仑对俄罗斯的战争，即俄罗斯历史上的卫国战争。）
A look at the “biotechnology” of the horse explains its usefulness.
看一看马的“生物技术”就能解释马的用处。
In terms of power a horse packs more than ten times that of a human.
就力量而言，一匹马的力量超过人类十倍以上。
(People still use “horsepower” as a way to quantify might.)
（人们仍然使用“马力”作为力量的一种衡量方式。）
Horses hardly need sleep, run fast for long stretches and have temperaments that make them easy to herd and train.
马几乎不需要睡眠，能长时间快速奔跑，而且性情温顺，易于放牧和训练。
Their teeth snip grass with front incisors and crush it with back molars, leaving a useful gap for a bit.
马用前面的切牙咬断草，用后面的磨牙将草嚼碎，之间的缝隙就可以用来咬别的东西。
Their milk has five times more vitamin C, and their flesh more protein, than cows’.
马奶的维生素C含量是牛奶的五倍，马肉的蛋白质含量也比牛肉高。
Handy “hardware” like stirrups and saddles, as well as the innovation of hitching horses to wheeled vehicles (from around 2000 BC), have given people more control.
方便的“硬件”，如马镫和马鞍，以及将马套在轮式车辆上的创新（大约从公元前2000年开始），让人们对马有了更多的控制。
Horses’ utility translated into muscular pricing.
马的实用性转化为高昂的价格。
An ordinary mount in ancient Athens cost upwards of 500 drachmas, compared with 140 for an unskilled slave.
在古代雅典，一匹普通的坐骑马价格超过500德拉克马，而一个无特殊技能的普通奴隶的价格是140德拉克马。（注：德拉克马是希腊货币单位。）
In Brazil in the 17th century a fine steed could fetch as much as 20 slaves.
在17世纪的巴西，一匹好马的价格可以达到20个奴隶的价格。
It is only in the past 100 years, since the invention and spread of automobiles, that horses became less integral to human civilisation and people’s daily lives.
直到过去100年里，自从汽车发明和普及以来，马才变得对人类文明和人们的日常生活不那么不可或缺。
However, as these books make clear, it would be unwise to put horses out to pasture in people’s memories.
然而，正如这些书所表明的那样，将马从人们的记忆中遗忘是不明智的。
They deserve enduring respect, for their hoof beats changed the world.
马值得永远的尊敬，因为它们的蹄声曾改变了世界。
