- •Voice as an aging, balding man running to fat feels about showing pictures of himself as
- •Very deliberate, and yet tender. There was nothing sly or lecherously lascivious
- •Intelligent. She hadn't fallen all over herself to screw for him or try to hustle (толкать,
- •I don't have the money. No bank would finance me. It takes millions to support a movie."
- •Impossible to avoid in his business and the temptations to which he was continually
- •In the sack (гамак; койка) anyway. You could tell (можно различить, распознать) a girl
- •Voice had gone to hell, his family life had gone to hell. And there had come the day
- •I'll be too hoarse to even talk. Do you think we'll have to fix up much of the stuff we did
- •In fact that was the excuse for the party itself. People would say, "Let's go over to see
- •Voracious [V∂’reı∫∂s] – прожорливый; жадный, ненасытный; plummet – свинцовый
- •Voice imaginable, "This looks like a pretty good movie."
- •I can say Deanna Dunn had me."
- •In the California moonlight. "Fuck you," he said gently, and they both laughed together
- •In had finished his new novel and came west on Johnny's invitation, to talk it over
- •In Sicily at the turn of the century the Mafia was the second government, far more
- •Vito was hidden by relatives and shipped to America. There he was boarded with the
- •Irish and American and abused the workmen in the foulest language, which Vito always
- •Vito was astonished but was careful not to show his astonishment. "Why do we have
- •It was from this experience came his oft-repeated belief that every man has but one
- •Vito Corleone told his wife to take the two children, Sonny and Fredo, down into the
- •Intelligence and courage.
- •Into barrel and handle, two separate pieces. He used a separate air shaft for each. They
- •Vito Corleone asked her gently, "Why do you ask me to help you?"
- •Inquiries about Vito Corleone. He did not wait until the next morning. He knocked on the
- •Imported Italian oil in America, his organization mushroomed (быстро росла;
- •It started casually enough. By this time the Genco Pura Oil Company had a fleet of six
- •Illicit gambling houses that ran poker games, the policy or numbers racket of Harlem.
- •Independent operation.
- •Vito Corleone was a man with vision. All the great cities of America were being torn by
- •It was typical of the young Santino, before he became older and crueler, that he
- •Identification card. "I'm Detective John Phillips from the New York Police Department,"
- •Is looking for him, everybody is looking for him. So far, no luck, so we thought you might
- •I'm just telling her she can get into serious trouble unless she cooperates with us. But
- •In anything so sordid (грязный, низкий, подлый)."
- •If my wife had been as presumptuous (самонадеянный, дерзкий, нахальный
- •In the streets, on playgrounds, etc., in which a rubber ball and a broomstick or the like
- •Virgin Mary with their red-glassed candles flickering on the sideboard, Bonasera lit a
- •Into fresh linen, white gleaming shirt, the black tie, a freshly pressed dark suit, dull black
- •Voice made it a question.
- •In the rear of the building, cut off from the funeral parlor and reception rooms by a
- •Vengeance. He cursed the day his wife and the wife of Don Corleone had become
- •In addition to this Sonny was under the enormous strain of being a marked man. He
- •I'll kill you, you bastard." She rushed at him, kicking and scratching.
- •In them and finally Connie was truly afraid.
- •It was nearly ten o'clock at night when the kitchen phone in Don Corleone's house
- •In front held up their guns now, the man in the darkened tollbooth cut his fire, and
- •It was almost five minutes before Carlo's voice came over the phone, a voice half
- •Inquiries to track down the murderers of my son without my express command. There
- •It looked like nothing could stop the dam from being built and supplies and equipment
- •Institution. Nothing was more calming, more conducive to pure reason, than the
- •Incidence of physical violence of any of the cities controlled by the Families; there had
- •In his empire. The Boston area had too many murders, too many petty wars for power,
- •In a curious way his almost victorious war against the Corleone Family had not won
- •Influence but many of the people who respect my counsel might lose this respect if
- •Into the sea or his ship sink beneath the waves of the ocean, if he should catch a mortal
- •In short, I wish now to live in a fortress. Let me say to you now that I will never go into
- •Important left out. Hagen knew what it was but he knew it was not his place to ask. He
- •Initiated that made the day's happenings no more than a tactical retreat. And there was
- •It was Hagen who brought this case to the attention of the Don at the request of one
- •It loverlike but really to feel her pulse. It was galloping. He'd get her tonight and he'd
- •In the next instant she let out a yell as he brought down the heavy medical volume on
- •It. She found herself quite interested.
- •Innocent?"
- •Inoperable? Then there was other stuff.
- •Valenti, "I think it might be a long wait for you, you'd better leave."
- •Very spoiled guy. Do you think because you're Johnny Fontane you can't get cancer? Or
- •Vendettas or had also emigrated, either to America, Brazil or to some other province on
- •In every emergency. He was their social worker, their district captain ready with a
- •Its eighteen thousand people strung out (to string out – растягивать вереницей) in
- •Interpreters to the military government. This good fortune enabled the Mafia to
- •Intelligence and the polarity of the fair and dark. This was an overwhelming desire for
- •Very big eves, very dark eyes. Do you know a girl like that in the village?"
- •Impressed him even more, made it clear that Michael was the superior of the two men
- •Villa outside Corleone. The wedding feast went on until midnight but bride and groom
- •Into the furnace."
- •It was unheard of for one of the peasant women in Sicily to attempt driving a car. But
- •In her New Hampshire hometown. The first six months after Michael vanished she made
- •Italians liked that supposedly, though Michael had always said he loved her being so
- •Into the bedroom." Kay took a long pull from her drink and smiled at him. "Yes," she said.
- •I won't talk."
- •Its amusement. "But how can you say that?" she said. "Really."
- •Individual. Governments really don't do much for their people, that's what it comes down
- •Valenti's gestures.
- •It was almost fifteen minutes before Jules Segal came into the suite. Johnny noted
- •It was this that made Johnny sore enough to bring Nino his water glass of whiskey.
- •I'd tell them. My voice used to have expression in those days. And they'd smile at me
- •I slice off the other tit. A year after that, I scoop out her insides like you scoop the seeds
- •In tonight with Tom Hagen. Tom said they'll be seeing you, Lucy. You know what it's all
- •Virginia asked. "Everything is going so beautifully for you. I never dreamed you had it in
- •In Nino's suite they found Johnny Fontane sitting on the couch eating breakfast. Jules
- •Inclinations. Had done it because she had asked him to, and that she was the only
- •In hand. And with you gone from here the Barzini and the Tattaglia will be too strong for
- •In the library the three men had relaxed as only people can who have lived years
- •It brought back his childhood in Sicily sixty years ago, brought it back without the terror,
- •Including, of course, the Don's widow. Connie was so overcome with emotion that she
- •Virtue, as well as her dark prettiness.
- •I'll crucify you." He motioned with his flashlight and the youth walked quickly away. Neri
- •In check but had given his nephew warning. "Tommy, you make my sister cry over you
- •It was Pete Clemenza, with his fine nose for good personnel, who brought the Neri
- •I'm getting old, I want to retire, And he comes to me and he says he wants to interfere in
- •Instruct him personally. I don't want to see Tessio at all. Just tell him I'll be ready to go
- •Is wrong now?"
- •Voided itself. Clemenza kept the garrot tight for another few minutes to make sure, then
- •It, but people never forgive themselves and so they would always be dangerous.
It brought back his childhood in Sicily sixty years ago, brought it back without the terror,
the sorrow of his own father's death. Now the beans in their rows grew little white
flowers on top; strong green stalks of scallion fenced everything in. At the foot of the
garden a spouted barrel stood guard. It was filled with liquidy cow manure, the linest
garden fertilizer. Also in that lower part of the garden were the square wooden frames
he had built with his own hands, the sticks cross-tied with thick white string. Over these
frames crawled the tomato vines.
The Don hastened to water his garden. It must be done before the sun waxed too hot
and turned the water into a prism of fire that could burn his lettuce leaves like paper.
Sun was more important than water, water also was important; but the two, imprudently
mixed, could cause great misfortune.
The Don moved through his garden hunting for ants. If ants were present, it meant
that lice were in his vegetables and the ants were going after the lice and he would have
to spray.
He had watered just in time. The sun was becoming hot and the Don thought,
"Prudence. Prudence." But there were just a few more plants to be supported by sticks
and he bent down again. He would go back into the house when he finished this last
row.
Quite suddenly it felt as if the sun had come down very close to his head. The air filled
with dancing golden specks. Michael's oldest boy came running through the garden
toward where the Don knelt and the boy was enveloped by a yellow shield of blinding
light. But the Don was not to be tricked, he was too old a hand. Death hid behind that
flaming yellow shield ready to pounce out on him and the Don with a wave of his hand
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru
220
warned the boy away from his presence. Just in time. The sledgehammer blow inside
his chest made him choke for air. The Don pitched forward into the earth.
The boy raced away to call his father. Michael Corleone and some men at the mall
gate ran to the garden and found the Don lying prone, clutching handfuls of earth. They
lifted the Don up and carried him to the shade of his stone-flagged patio. Michael knelt
beside his father, holding his hand, while the other men called for an ambulance and
doctor.
With a great effort the Don opened his eyes to see his son once more. The massive
heart attack had turned his ruddy face almost blue. He was in extremis. He smelled the
garden, the yellow shield of light smote his eyes, and he whispered, "Life is so
beautiful."
He was spared the sight of his women's tears, dying before they came back from
church, dying before the ambulance arrived, or the doctor. He died surrounded by men,
holding the hand of the son he had most loved.
The funeral was royal. The Five Families sent their Dons and caporegimes, as did the
Tessio and Clemenza Families. Johnny Fontane made the tabloid headlines by
attending the funeral despite the advice of Michael not to appear. Fontane gave a
statement to the newspapers that Vito Corleone was his Godfather and the finest man
he had ever known and that he was honored to be permitted to pay his last respects to
such a man and didn't give a damn who knew it.
The wake was held in the house of the mall, in the old-fashioned style. Amerigo
Bonasera had never done finer work, had discharged all obligations, by preparing his
old friend and Godfather as lovingly as a mother prepares a bride for her wedding.
Everyone commented on how not even death itself had been able to erase the nobility
and the dignity of the great Don's countenance and such remarks made Amerigo
Bonasera fill with knowing pride, a curious sense of power. Only he knew what a terrible
massacre death had perpetrated on the Don's appearance.
All the old friends and servitors came. Nazorine, his wife, his daughter and her
husband and their children, Lucy Mancini came with Freddie from Las Vegas. Tom
Hagen and his wife and children, the Dons from San Francisco and Los Angeles,
Boston and Cleveland. Rocco Lampone and Albert Neri were pallbearers with
Clemenza and Tessio and, of course, the sons of the Don. The mall and all its houses
were filled with floral wreaths.
Outside the gates of the mall were the newspapermen and photographers and a small
truck that was known to contain FBI men with their movie cameras recording this epic.
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru
Some newspapersmen who tried to crash the funeral inside found that the gate and
221
fence were manned with security guard who demanded identification and an invitation
card. And though they were treated with the utmost courtesy, refreshment sent out to
them, they were not permitted inside. They tried to speak with some of the people
coming out but were met with stony stares and not a syllable.
Michael Corleone spent most of the day in the corner library room with Kay, Tom
Hagen and Freddie. People were ushered in to see him, to offer their condolences.
Michael received them with all courtesy even when some of them addressed him as
Godfather or Don Michael, only Kay noticing his lips tighten with displeasure.
Clemenza and Tessio came to join this inner circle and Michael personally served
them with a drink. There was some gossip of business. Michael informed them that the
mall and all its houses were to be sold to a development and construction company. At
an enormous profit, still another proof of the great Don's genius.
They all understood that now the whole empire would be in the West. That the
Corleone Family would liquidate its power in New York. Such action had been awaiting
the retirement or death of the Don.
It was nearly ten years since there had been such a celebration of people in this
house, nearly ten years since the wedding of Constanzia Corleone and Carlo Rizzi, so
somebody said. Michael walked to the window that looked out on the garden. That long
time ago he had sat in the garden with Kay never dreaming that so curious a destiny
was to be his. And his father dying had said, "Life is so beautiful." Michael could never
remember his father ever having uttered a word about death, as if the Don respected
death too much to philosophize about it.
It was time for the cemetery. It was time to bury the great Don. Michael linked his arm
with Kay's and went out into the garden to join the host of mourners. Behind him came
the caporegimes followed by their soldiers and then all the humble people the Godfather
had blessed during his lifetime. The baker Nazorine, the widow Colombo and her sons
and all the countless others of his world he had ruled so firmly but justly. There were
even some who had been his enemies, come to do him honor.
Michael observed all this with a tight, polite smile. He was not impressed. Yet, he
thought, if I can die saying, "Life is so beautiful," then nothing else is important. If I can
believe in myself that much, nothing else matters. He would follow his father. He would
care for his children, his family, his world. But his children would grow in a different
world. They would be doctors, artists, scientists. Governors. Presidents. Anything at all.
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru
222
He would see to it that they joined the general family of humanity, but he, as a powerful
and prudent parent would most certainly keep a wary eye on that general family.
On the morning after the funeral, all the most important officials of the Corleone
Family assembled on the mall. Shortly before noon they were admitted into the empty
house of the Don. Michael Corleone received them.
They almost filled the corner library room. There were the two caporegimes,
Clemenza and Tessio; Rocco Lampone, with his reasonable, competent air; Carlo Rizzi,
very quiet, very much knowing his place; Tom Hagen forsaking his strictly legal role to
rally around in this crisis; Albert Neri trying to stay physically close to Michael, lighting
his new Don's cigarette, mixing his drink, all to show an unswerving loyalty despite the
recent disaster to the Corleone Family.
The death of the Don was a great misfortune for the Family. Without him it seemed
that half their strength was gone and almost all their bargaining power against the
Barzini-Tattaglia alliance. Everyone in the room knew this and they waited for what
Michael would say. In their eyes he was not yet the new Don; he had not earned the
position or the title. If the Godfather had lived, he might have assured his son's
succession; now it was by no means certain.
Michael waited until Neri had served drinks. Then he said quietly, "I just want to tell
everybody here that I understand how they feel. I know you all respected my father, but
now you have to worry about yourselves and your families. Some of you wonder how
what happened is going to affect the planning we've done and the promises I made.
Well, the answer to that is: nothing. Everything goes on as before."
Clemenza shook his great shaggy buffalo head. His hair was so iron gray and his
features, more deeply embedded in added layers of fat, were unpleasant. "The Barzinis
and Tattaglias are going to move in on us real hard, Mike. You gotta fight or have a 'sit-
down' with them." Everyone in the room noticed that Clemenza had not used a formal
form of address to Michael, much less the title of Don.
"Let's wait and see what happens," Michael said. "Let them break the peace first."
Tessio spoke up in his soft voice. "They already have, Mike. They opened up two
'books' in Brooklyn this morning. I got the word from the police captain who runs the
protection list at the station house. In a month I won't have a place to hang my hat in all
Brooklyn."
Michael stared at him thoughtfully. "Have you done anything about it?"
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru
Tessio shook his small, ferretlike head. "No," he said. "I didn't want to give you any
problems."
223
"Good," Michael said. "Just sit tight. And I guess that's what I want to say to all of you,
Just sit tight. Don't react to any provocation. Give me a few weeks to straighten things
out, to see which way the wind is going to blow. Then I'll make the best deal I can for
everybody here. Then we'll have a final meeting and make some final decisions."
He ignored their surprise and Albert Neri started ushering them out. Michael said
sharply, "Tom, stick around a few minutes."
Hagen went to the window that faced the mall. He waited until he saw the
caporegimes and Carlo Rizzo and Rocco Lampore being shepherded through the
guarded gate by Neri. Then he turned to Michael and said, "Have you got all the political
connections wired into you?"
Michael shook his head regretfully. "Not all. I needed about four more months. The
Don and I were working on it. But I've got all the judges, we did that first, and some of
the more important people in Congress. And the big party boys here in New York were
no problem, of course.
The Corleone Family is a lot stronger than anybody thinks, but I hoped to make it
foolproof." He smiled at Hagen. "I guess you've figured everything out by now."
Hagen nodded. "It wasn't hard. Except why you wanted me out of the action. But I put
on my Sicilian hat and I finally figured that too."
Michael laughed. "The old man said you would. But that's a luxury I can't afford
anymore. I need you here. At least for the next few weeks. You better phone Vegas and
talk to your wife. Just tell her a few weeks."
Hagen said musingly, "How do you think they'll come at you?"
Michael sighed. "The Don instructed me. Through somebody close. Barzini will set me
up through somebody close that, supposedly, I won't suspect."
Hagen smiled at him. "Somebody like me."
Michael smiled back. "You're Irish, they won't trust you."
"I'm German-American," Hagen said.
"To them that's Irish," Michael said. "They won't go to you and they won't go to Neri
because Neri was a cop. Plus both of you are too close to me. They can't take that
gamble. Rocco Lampone isn't close enough. No, it will be Clemenza, Tessio or Carlo
Rizzi."
Hagen said softly, "I'm betting it's Carlo"
"We'll see," Michael said. "It won't be long."
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru
It was the next morning, while Hagen and Michael were having breakfast together.
224
Michael took a phone call in the library, and when he came back to the kitchen, he said
to Hagen, "It's all set up. I'm going to meet Barzini a week from now. To make new
peace now that the Don is dead." Michael laughed. Hagen asked, "Who phoned you,
who made the contact?" They both knew that whoever in the Corleone Family had
made the contact had turned traitor.
Michael gave Hagen a sad regretful smile. "Tessio," he said.
They ate the rest of their breakfast in silence. Over coffee Hagen shook his head, "I
could have sworn it would have been Carlo or maybe Clemenza. I never figured Tessio.
He's the best of the lot."
"He's the most intelligent," Michael said, "And he did what seems to him to be the
smart thing. He sets me up for the hit by Barzini and inherits the Corleone Family. He
sticks with me and he gets wiped out; he's figuring I can't win."
Hagen paused before he asked reluctantly, "How right is he figuring?"
Michael shrugged. "It looks bad. But my father was the only one who understood that
political connections and power are worth ten regimes, I think I've got most of my
father's political power in my hands now, but I'm the only one who really knows that." He
smiled at Hagen, a reassuring smile. "I'll make them call me Don. But I feel lousy about
Tessio."
Hagen said, "Have you agreed to the meeting with Barzini?"
"Yeah," Michael said. "A week from tonight. In Brooklyn, on Tessio's ground where I'll
be safe," He laughed again.
Hagen said, "Be careful before then."
For the first time Michael was cold with Hagen. "I don't need a Consigliori to give me
that kind of advice," be said.
During the week preceding the peace meeting between the Corleone and Barzini
Families, Michael showed Hagen just how careful he could be. He never set foot
outside the mall and never received anyone without Neri beside him. There was only
one annoying complication, Connie and Carlo's oldest boy was to receive his
Confirmation in the Catholic Church and Kay asked Michael to be the Godfather.
Michael refused.
"I don't often beg you," Kay said. "Please do this just for me. Connie wants it so much.
And so does Carlo. It's very important to them. Please, Michael."
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru
225
She could see he was angry with her for insisting and expected him to refuse. So she
was surprised when he nodded and said, "OK. But I can't leave the mall. Tell them to
arrange for the priest to confirm the kid here. I'll pay whatever it costs. If they run into
trouble with the church people, Hagen will straighten it out."
And so the day before the meeting with the Barzini Family, Michael Corleone stood
Godfather to the son of Carlo and Connie Rizzi. He presented the boy with so extremely
expensive wristwatch and gold band. There was a small party in Carlo's house, to which
were invited the caporegimes, Hagen, Lampone and everyone who lived on the mall,