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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.
這三本書都探討了在公元前3000年，馭馬技術如何讓首次掌握這一技術的人獲得權力。
Their homeland was the Pontic-Caspian steppe, the vast grasslands north of the Black and Caspian seas.
這些人的家園是東歐大草原，即黑海和里海以北的廣袤草原。
Using horses for food, transport and warfare provided mobility and an edge over others.
將馬用于食用、運輸和戰爭讓他們有了機動性和比其他人更大的優勢。
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.
一個結果是他們的語言，即原始印歐語，構成了當今世界46%的人所說語言的根源，比如孟加拉語和葡萄牙語。
Their genetic imprint stamps 40-50% of Europeans.
他們的基因印記留在40%至50%的歐洲人身上。
Some 60-90% of men on the Indian subcontinent can trace patrilineal DNA back to these early horsemen.
大約60%至90%的印度次大陸男性的父系DNA可以追溯到這些早期騎手身上。（注：印度次大陸即亞歐大陸喜馬拉雅山脈以南部分，包括印度、巴基斯坦、尼泊爾、不丹、孟加拉國、斯里蘭卡等國家。）
Superior horses and horsemanship continued to determine sweeping population movements.
優越的馬匹和馬術繼而決定了大規模人口流動。
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.
在大約公元前2000年，馬已經踏平毀滅了歐洲和印度的更古老文明，比如在英格蘭建造巨石陣的文明和在印度河流域建造摩亨佐-達羅古城的文明。
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).
對騎馬術的掌握使匈奴人進入歐洲（約公元370年），使阿拉伯人進入西班牙（公元711年），使土耳其人進入印度（公元1020年）和安納托利亞高原（公元1071年）。（注：安納托利亞高原是亞歐分界線，現土耳其境內。）
Horses also spread the vast Mongol armies under Genghis Khan across nearly the whole of the Eurasian land mass, including China (around 1200 AD).
馬還讓成吉思汗率領的龐大蒙古軍隊遍布幾乎整個歐亞大陸，其中包括中國（約公元1200年）。
In Europe feudalism and chivalry arrived on horseback, as did Napoleon’s troops.
在歐洲，封建主義和騎士精神是騎馬而來的，拿破侖的軍隊也是如此。
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.
瓦恩加德認為，在1812年法國軍隊從莫斯科的災難性撤退中，決定了拿破侖皇帝命運的是20萬匹馬的覆沒（無法迅速補充），而不是50萬士兵的覆沒（可以補充）。（注：此處指拿破侖對俄羅斯的戰爭，即俄羅斯歷史上的衛國戰爭。）
A look at the “biotechnology” of the horse explains its usefulness.
看一看馬的“生物技術”就能解釋馬的用處。
In terms of power a horse packs more than ten times that of a human.
就力量而言，一匹馬的力量超過人類十倍以上。
(People still use “horsepower” as a way to quantify might.)
（人們仍然使用“馬力”作為力量的一種衡量方式。）
Horses hardly need sleep, run fast for long stretches and have temperaments that make them easy to herd and train.
馬幾乎不需要睡眠，能長時間快速奔跑，而且性情溫順，易于放牧和訓練。
Their teeth snip grass with front incisors and crush it with back molars, leaving a useful gap for a bit.
馬用前面的切牙咬斷草，用后面的磨牙將草嚼碎，之間的縫隙就可以用來咬別的東西。
Their milk has five times more vitamin C, and their flesh more protein, than cows’.
馬奶的維生素C含量是牛奶的五倍，馬肉的蛋白質含量也比牛肉高。
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”，如馬鐙和馬鞍，以及將馬套在輪式車輛上的創新（大約從公元前2000年開始），讓人們對馬有了更多的控制。
Horses’ utility translated into muscular pricing.
馬的實用性轉化為高昂的價格。
An ordinary mount in ancient Athens cost upwards of 500 drachmas, compared with 140 for an unskilled slave.
在古代雅典，一匹普通的坐騎馬價格超過500德拉克馬，而一個無特殊技能的普通奴隸的價格是140德拉克馬。（注：德拉克馬是希臘貨幣單位。）
In Brazil in the 17th century a fine steed could fetch as much as 20 slaves.
在17世紀的巴西，一匹好馬的價格可以達到20個奴隸的價格。
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.
直到過去100年里，自從汽車發明和普及以來，馬才變得對人類文明和人們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，正如這些書所表明的那樣，將馬從人們的記憶中遺忘是不明智的。
They deserve enduring respect, for their hoof beats changed the world.
馬值得永遠的尊敬，因為它們的蹄聲曾改變了世界。
