Илья Франк - Английский язык с Крестным Отцом
almost entirely to Sollozzo's original proposal if that proposal was endorsed (to endorse
[ın’do:s] – расписываться на обороте документа; подтверждать, одобрять) by the
national group gathered here. It was understood that he would never participate in the
operational phase, nor would he invest his money. He would merely use his protective
influence with the legal apparatus. But this was a formidable concession.
The Don of Los Angeles, Frank Falcone, spoke to answer. "There's no way of
stopping our people from going into that business. They go in on their own and they get
in trouble. There's too much money in it to resist. So it's more dangerous if we don't go
in. At least if we control it we can cover it better, organize it better, make sure it causes
less trouble. Being in it is not so bad, there has to be control, there has to be protection,
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there has to be organization, we can't have everybody running around doing just what
they please like a bunch of anarchists."
The Don of Detroit, more friendly to Corleone than any of the others, also now spoke
against his friend's position, in the interest of reasonableness. "I don't believe in drugs,"
he said. "For years I paid my people extra so they wouldn't do that kind of business. But
it didn't matter, it didn't help. Somebody comes to them and says, 'I have powders, if
you put up the three-, four-thousand-dollar investment we can make fifty thousand
distributing.' Who can resist such a profit? And they are so busy with their little side
business they neglect the work I pay them to do. There's more money in drugs. It's
getting bigger all the time. There's no way to stop it so we have to control the business
and keep it respectable. I don't want any of it near schools, I don't want any of it sold to
children. That is an infamita. In my city I would try to keep the traffic in the dark people,
the colored. They are the best customers, the least troublesome and they are animals
anyway. They have no respect for their wives or their families or for themselves. Let
them lose their souls with drugs. But something has to be done, we just can't let people
do as they please and make trouble for everyone."
This speech of the Detroit Don was received with loud murmurs of approval. He had
hit the nail on the head. You couldn't even pay people to stay out of the drug traffic. As
for his remarks about children, that was his well-known sensibility, his
tenderheartedness speaking. After all, who would sell drugs to children? Where would
children get the money? As for his remarks about the coloreds, that was not even heard.
The Negroes were considered of absolutely no account, of no force whatsoever. That
they had allowed society to grind them into the dust proved them of no account and his
mentioning them in any way proved that the Don of Detroit had a mind that always
wavered (to waver – колебаться, колыхаться, развеваться) toward irrelevancies
(irrelevance – неуместность [ı'relıv∂ns]).
All the Dons spoke. All of them deplored the traffic in drugs as a bad thing that would
cause trouble but agreed there was no way to control it. There was, simply, too much
money to be made in the business, therefore it followed that there would be men who
would dare anything to dabble (плескаться, барахтаться; заниматься чем-либо
поверхностно) in it. That was human nature.
It was finally agreed. Drug traffic would be permitted and Don Corleone must give it
some legal protection in the East. It was understood that the Barzini and Tattaglia
Families would do most of the large-scale operations. With this out of the way the
conference was able to move on to other matters of a wider interest. There were many
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complex problems to be solved. It was agreed that Las Vegas and Miami were to be
open cities where any of the Families could operate. They all recognized that these
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were the cities of the future. It was also agreed that no violence would be permitted in
these cities and that petty (мелкий, незначительный) criminals of all types were to be
discouraged. It was agreed that in momentous affairs, in executions that were
necessary but might cause too much of a public outcry, the execution must be approved
by this council. It was agreed that button men and other soldiers were to be restrained
from violent crimes and acts of vengeance against each other on personal matters. It
was agreed that Families would do each other services when requested, such as
providing executioners, technical assistance in pursuing certain courses of action such
as bribing jurors (juror ['dGu∂r∂] – присяжный), which in some instances could be vital.
These discussions, informal, colloquial and on a high level, took time and were broken
by lunch and drinks from the buffet bar.
Finally Don Barzini sought to bring the meeting to an end. "That's the whole matter
then," he said. "We have the peace and let me pay my respects to Don Corleone, whom
we all have known over the years as a man of his word. If there are any more
differences we can meet again, we need not become foolish again. On my part the road
is new and fresh. I'm glad this is all settled."
Only Phillip Tattaglia was a little worried still. The murder of Santino Corleone made
him the most vulnerable person in this group if war broke out again. He spoke at length
for the first time.
"I've agreed to everything here, I'm willing to forget my own misfortune. But I would
like to hear some strict assurances from Corleone. Will he attempt any individual
vengeance? When time goes by and his position perhaps becomes stronger, will he
forget that we have sworn our friendship? How am I to know that in three or four years
he won't feel that he's been ill served, forced against his will to this agreement and so
free to break it? Will we have to guard against each other all the time? Or can we truly
go in peace with peace of mind? Would Corleone give us all his assurances as I now
give mine?"
It was then that Don Corleone gave the speech that would be long remembered, and
that reaffirmed his position as the most far-seeing statesman among them, so full of
common sense, so direct from the heart; and to the heart of the matter. In it he coined a
phrase that was to become as famous in its way as Churchill's Iron Curtain, though not
public knowledge until more than ten years later.
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For the first time he stood up to address the council. He was short and a little thin from
his "illness," perhaps his sixty years showed a bit more but there was no question that
he had regained all his former strength, and had all his wits.
"What manner of men are we then, if we do not have our reason," he said. "We are all
no better than beasts in a jungle if that were the case. But we have reason, we can
reason with each other and we can reason with ourselves. To what purpose would I
start all these troubles again, the violence and the turmoil? My son is dead and that is a
misfortune and I must bear it, not make the innocent world around me suffer with me.
And so I say, I give my honor, that I will never seek vengeance, I will never seek
knowledge of the deeds that have been done in the past. I will leave here with a pure
heart.
"Let me say that we must always look to our interests. We are all men who have
refused to be fools, who have refused to be puppets dancing on a string pulled by the
men on high. We have been fortunate here in this country. Already most of our children
have found a better life. Some of you have sons who are professors, scientists,
musicians, and you are fortunate. Perhaps your grandchildren will become the new
pezzonovanti. None of us here want to see our children follow in our footsteps, it's too
hard a life. They can be as others, their position and security won by our courage. I
have grandchildren now and I hope their children may someday, who knows, be a
governor, a President, nothing's impossible here in America. But we have to progress
with the times. The time is past for guns and killings and massacres. We have to be
cunning like the business people, there's more money in it and it's better for our children
and our grandchildren.
"As for our own deeds, we are not responsible to the .90 calibers, the pezzonovantis
who take it upon themselves to decide what we shall do with our lives, who declare
wars they wish us to fight in to protect what they own. Who is to say we should obey the
laws they make for their own interest and to our hurt? And who are they then to meddle
when we look after our own interests? Sonna cosa nostra," Don Corleone said, "these
are our own affairs. We will manage our world for ourselves because it is our world,
cosa nostra. And so we have to stick together to guard against outside meddlers.
Otherwise they will put the ring in our nose as they have put the ring in the nose of all
the millions of Neapolitans and other Italians in this country.
"For this reason I forgo my vengeance for my dead son, for the common good. I
swear now that as long as I am responsible for the actions of my Family there will not be
one finger lifted against any man here without just cause and utmost provocation. I am
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willing to sacrifice my commercial interests for the common good. This is my word, this
is my honor, there are those of you here who know I have never betrayed either.
"But I have a selfish interest. My youngest son had to flee, accused of Sollozzo's
murder and that of a police captain. I must now make arrangements so that he can
come home with safety, cleared of all those false charges. That is my affair and I will
make those arrangements. I must find the real culprits (culprit – Обвиняемый,
преступник, виновный ['kΛlprıt]) perhaps, or perhaps I must convince the authorities of
his innocence, perhaps the witnesses and informants will recant (отрекаться,
отказываться от своего мнения [rı'kжnt]) their lies. But again I say that this is my affair
and I believe I will be able to bring my son home.
"But let me say this. I am a superstitious man, a ridiculous failing but I must confess it
here. And so if some unlucky accident should befall my youngest son, if some police
officer should accidentally shoot him, if he should hang himself in his cell, if new
witnesses appear to testify to his guilt, my superstition will make me feel that it was the
result of the ill will still borne me by some people here. Let me go further. If my son is
struck by a bolt of lightning I will blame some of the people here. If his plane should fall
into the sea or his ship sink beneath the waves of the ocean, if he should catch a mortal
fever, if his automobile should be struck by a train, such is my superstition that I would
blame the ill will felt by people here. Gentlemen, that ill will, that bad luck, I could never
forgive. But aside from that let me swear by the souls of my grandchildren that I will
never break the peace we have made. After all, are we or are we not better men than
those pezzonovanti who have killed countless millions of men in our lifetimes?"
With this Don Corleone stepped from his place and went down the table to where Don
Phillip Tattaglia was sitting. Tattaglia rose to greet him and the two men embraced,
kissing each other's cheeks. The other Dons in the room applauded and rose to shake
hands with everybody in sight and to congratulate Don Corleone and Don Tattaglia on
their new friendship. It was not perhaps the warmest friendship in the world, they would
not send each other Christmas gift greetings, but they would not murder each other.
That was friendship enough in this world, all that was needed.
Since his son Freddie was under the protection of the Molinari Family in the West,
Don Corleone lingered with the San Francisco Don after the meeting to thank him.
Molinari said enough for Don Corleone to gather that Freddie had found his niche out
there, was happy and had become something of a ladies' man. He had a genius for
running a hotel, it seemed. Don Corleone shook his head in wonder, as many fathers do
when told of undreamed-of talents in their children. Wasn't it true that sometimes the
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greatest misfortunes brought unforeseen rewards? They both agreed that this was so.
Meanwhile Corleone made it clear to the San Francisco Don that he was in his debt for
the great service done in protecting Freddie. He let it be known that his influence would
be exerted so that the important racing wires (проволока, обозначающая финиш на
скачках /под которую забегают кони на финише/) would always be available to his
people no matter what changes occurred in the power structure in the years to come, an
important guarantee since the struggle over this facility was a constant open wound
complicated by the fact that the Chicago people had their heavy hand in it. But Don
Corleone was not without influence even in that land of barbarians and so his promise
was a gift of gold.
It was evening before Don Corleone, Tom Hagen and the bodyguard-chauffeur, who
happened to be Rocco Lampone, arrived at the mall in Long Beach. When they went
into the house the Don said to Hagen, "Our driver, that man Lampone, keep an eye on
him. He's a fellow worth something better I think." Hagen wondered at this remark.
Lampone had not said a word all day, had not even glanced at the two men in the back
seat. He had opened the door for the Don, the car had been in front of the bank when
they emerged, he had done everything correctly but no more than any well-trained
chauffeur might do. Evidently the Don's eye had seen something he had not seen.
