Английский язык с Крестным Отцом
Шрифт:
all this commotion (волнение /моря/; смятение; суматоха, суета), this uproar that had
so affected the conduct of everyday business by the New York Families. Also he was a
sixty-year-old dandy (щеголь, франт) and woman-chaser. And he had ample
(обширный, достаточный) opportunity to indulge his weakness.
For the Tattaglia Family dealt in women. Its main business was prostitution. It also
controlled most of the nightclubs in the United States and could place any talent
anywhere in the country. Phillip Tattaglia was not above using strong-arm to get control
of promising singers and comics and muscling in on record firms. But prostitution was
the main source of the Family income.
His personality was unpleasant to these men. He was a whiner (to whine –
хныкать, плакаться), always complaining of the costs in his Family business. Laundry
bills, all those towels, ate up the profits (but he owned the laundry firm that did the work).
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The girls were lazy and unstable, running off, committing suicide. The pimps were
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treacherous and dishonest and without a shred (лоскуток, клочок) of loyalty. Good help
was hard to find. Young lads of Sicilian blood turned up their noses at such work,
considered it beneath their honor to traffic and abuse women; those rascals who would
slit a throat with a song on their lips and the cross of an Easter palm in the lapel of their
jackets. So Phillip Tattaglia would rant (говорить напыщенно, декламировать,
проповедовать) on to audiences unsympathetic and contemptuous. His biggest howl
(вой, завывание) was reserved for authorities who had it in their power to issue and
cancel liquor licenses for his nightclubs and cabarets. He swore he had made more
millionaires than Wall Street with the money he had paid those thieving guardians of
official seals.
In a curious way his almost victorious war against the Corleone Family had not won
him the respect it deserved. They knew his strength had come first from Sollozzo and
then from the Barzini Family. Also the fact that with the advantage of surprise he had
not won complete victory was evidence against him. If he had been more efficient, all
this trouble could have been avoided. The death of Don Corleone would have meant the
end of the war. It was proper, since they had both lost sons in their war against each
other, that Don Corleone and Phillip Tattaglia should acknowledge each other's
presence only with a formal nod. Don Corleone was the object of attention, the other
men studying him to see what mark of weakness had been left on him by his wounds
and defeats. The puzzling factor was why Don Corleone had sued for peace after the
death of his favorite son. It was an acknowledgment of defeat and would almost surely
lead to a lessening of his power. But they would soon know.
There were greetings, there were drinks to be served and almost another half hour
went by before Don Corleone took his seat at the polished walnut table. Unobtrusively
(unobtrusive [nb’tru:siv] –
to the Don's left and behind him. This was the signal for the other Dons to make their
way to the table. Their aides sat behind them, the Consiglioris up close so that they
could offer any advice when needed.
Don Corleone was the first to speak and he spoke as if nothing had happened. As if
he had not been grievously wounded and his eldest son slain (to slay-slew-slain –
убивать /книжн./), his empire in a shambles (в развалинах, руинах), his personal
family scattered, Freddie in the West and under the protection of the Molinari Family
and Michael secreted in the wastelands (пустынные, невозделанные земли) of Sicily.
He spoke naturally, in Sicilian dialect.
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru
"I want to thank you all for coming," he said. "I consider it a service done to me
personally and I am in the debt of each and every one of you. And so I will say at the
beginning that. I am here not to quarrel or convince, but only to reason and as a
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reasonable man do everything possible for us all to part friends here too. I give my word
on that, and some of you who know me well know I do not give my word lightly. Ah, well,
let's get down to business. We are all honorable men here, we don't have to give each
other assurances as if we were lawyers."
He paused. None of the others spoke. Some were smoking cigars, others sipping their
drinks. All of these men were good listeners, patient men. They had one other thing in
common. They were those rarities, men who had refused to accept the rule of organized