Английский язык с Крестным Отцом
Шрифт:
from Sicily, a girl of only sixteen but a skilled cook, a good housewife. They settled
down in a tenement (многоквартирный дом, сдаваемый в аренду ['tenimnt]) on
Tenth Avenue, near 35th Street, only a few blocks from where Vito worked, and two
years later were blessed with their first child, Santino, called by all his friends Sonny
because of his devotion to his father.
In the neighborhood lived a man called Fanucci. He was a heavy-set, fierce-looking
Italian who wore expensive light-colored suits and a cream-colored fedora. This man
was reputed to be of the "Black Hand," an offshoot (ответвление,
the Mafia which extorted money from families and storekeepers by threat of physical
violence. However, since most of the inhabitants of the neighborhood were violent
themselves, Fanucci's threats of bodily harm were effective only with elderly couples
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without male children to defend them. Some of the storekeepers paid him trifling sums
as a matter of convenience. However, Fanucci was also a scavenger (уборщик мусора;
животное или птица, питающееся падалью ['skжvindG]) on fellow criminals, people
who illegally sold Italian lottery or ran gambling games in their homes. The Abbandando
grocery gave him a small tribute, this despite the protests of young Genco, who told his
father he would settle the Fanucci hash (заставит его замолчать, разделается с ним;
hash – блюдо из мелко нарезанного мяса и овощей; мешанина, путаница). His
father forbade him. Vito Corleone observed all this without feeling in any way involved.
One day Fanucci was set upon by three young men who cut his throat from ear to ear,
not deeply enough to kill him, but enough to frighten him and make him bleed a great
deal. Vito saw Fanucci fleeing from his punishers, the circular slash flowing red. What
he never forgot was Fanucci holding the cream-colored fedora under his chin to catch
the dripping blood as he ran. As if he did not want his suit soiled or did not want to leave
a shameful trail of carmine.
But this attack proved a blessing in disguise for Fanucci. The three young men were not
murderers, merely tough young boys determined to teach him a lesson and stop him
from scavenging. Fanucci proved himself a murderer. A few weeks later the knife-
wielder was shot to death and the families of the other two young men paid an
indemnity (возмещение, компенсация) to Fanucci to make him forswear his
vengeance (отказаться от мести). After that the tributes became higher and Fanucci
became a partner in the neighborhood gambling games. As for Vito Corleone, it was
none of his affair. He forgot about it immediately.
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During World War I, when imported olive oil became scarce, Fanucci acquired a part-
interest in the Abbandando grocery store by supplying it not only with oil, but imported
Italian salami, hams and cheeses. He then moved a nephew into the store and Vito
Corleone found himself out of a job.
By this time, the second child, Frederico, had arrived and Vito Corleone had four
mouths to feed. Up to this time he had been a quiet, very contained young man who
kept his thoughts to himself. The son of the grocery store owner, young Genco
Abbandando, was his closest friend, and to the surprise of both of them, Vito
reproached his friend for his father's deed. Genco, flushed with shame, vowed to Vito
that he would not have to worry about food. That he, Genco, would steal food from the
grocery to supply his friend's needs. This offer though was sternly refused by Vito as too
shameful, a son stealing from his father.
The young Vito, however, felt a cold anger for the dreaded Fanucci. He never showed
this anger in any way but bided his time (выжидал
worked in the railroad for a few months and then, when the war ended, work became
slow and he could earn only a few days' pay a month. Also, most of the foremen were
Irish and American and abused the workmen in the foulest language, which Vito always
bore stone-faced as if he did not comprehend, though he understood English very well
despite his accent.
One evening as Vito was having supper with his family there was a knock on the
window that led to the open air shaft (шахта; проход) that separated them from the next
building. When Vito pulled aside the curtain he saw to his astonishment one of the
young men in the neighborhood, Peter Clemenza, leaning out from a window on the
other side of the air shaft. He was extending a white-sheeted bundle.
"Hey, paisan," Clemenza said. "Hold these for me until I ask for them. Hurry up."
Automatically Vito reached over the empty space of the air shaft and took the bundle.
Clemenza's face was strained and urgent. He was in some sort of trouble and Vito's
helping action was instinctive. But when he untied the bundle in his kitchen, there were
five oily guns staining the white cloth. He put them in his bedroom closet and waited. He
learned that Clemenza had been taken away by the police. They must have been
knocking on his door when he handed the guns over the air shaft.