Английский язык с Крестным Отцом
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Hagen made another call to Tessio, telling him to come to the mall in Long Beach
immediately. He didn't say why and Tessio did not ask. Hagen sighed. Now would come
the part he dreaded.
He would have to waken the Don from his drugged slumber. He would have to tell the
man he most loved in the world that he had failed him, that he had failed to guard his
domain and the life of his eldest son. He would have to tell the Don everything was lost
unless the sick man himself could enter the battle. For Hagen did not delude himself.
Only the great Don himself could snatch even a stalemate from this terrible defeat.
Hagen didn't even bother checking with Don Corleone's doctors, it would be to no
purpose. No matter what the doctors ordered, even if they told him that the Don could
not rise from his sickbed on pain of death, he must tell his adopted father and then
follow him. And of course there was no question about what the Don would do. The
opinions of medical men were irrelevant now, everything was irrelevant now. The Don
must be told and he must either take command or order Hagen to surrender the
Corleone power to the Five Families.
And yet with all his heart, Hagen dreaded the next hour. He tried to prepare his own
manner. He would have to be in all ways strict with his own guilt. To reproach himself
would only add to the Don's burden. To show his own grief would only sharpen the grief
of the Don. To point out his own shortcomings (недостатки,
дотягивает») as a wartime Consigliori, would only make the Don reproach himself for
his own bad judgment for picking such a man for such an important post.
He must, Hagen knew, tell the news, present his analysis of what must be done to
rectify (исправить, выпрямить) the situation and then keep silent. His reactions
thereafter must be the reactions invited by his Don. If the Don wanted him to show guilt,
he would show guilt; if the Don invited grief, he would lay bare his genuine sorrow.
Hagen lifted his head at the sound of motors, cars rolling up onto the mall. The
caporegimes were arriving. He would brief them first and then he would go up and
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wake Don Corleone. He got up and went to the liquor cabinet by the desk and took out
a glass and bottle. He stood there for a moment so unnerved he could not pour the
liquid from bottle to glass. Behind him, he heard the door to the room close softly and,
turning, he saw, fully dressed for the first time since he had been shot, Don Corleone.
The Don walked across the room to his huge leather armchair and sat down. He
walked a little stiffly, his clothes hung a little loosely on his frame but to Hagen's eyes he
looked the same as always. It was almost as if by his will alone the Don had discarded
all external evidence of his still weakened frame. His face was sternly set with all its old
force and strength. He sat straight in the armchair and he said to Hagen, "Give me a
drop of anisette."
Hagen switched bottles and poured them both a portion of the fiery, licorice-tasting
alcohol. It was peasant, homemade stuff, much stronger than that sold in stores, the gift
of an old friend who every year presented the Don with a small truckload.
"My wife was weeping before she fell asleep," Don Corleone said. "Outside my
window I saw my caporegimes coming to the house and it is midnight. So, Consigliori of
mine, I think you should tell your Don what everyone knows."
Hagen said quietly, "I didn't tell Mama anything. I was about to come up and wake you
and tell you the news myself. In another moment I would have come to waken you."
Don Corleone said impassively, "But you needed a drink first."
"Yes," Hagen said.
"You've had your drink," the Don said. "You can tell me now." There was just the
faintest hint of reproach for Hagen's weakness.
"They shot Sonny on the causeway," Hagen said. "He's dead."
Don Corleone blinked (to blink –
the wall of his will disintegrated and the draining (to drain – дренировать, осушать
/почву/; истощать /силы, средства/) of his physical strength was plain on his face.
Then he recovered.
He clasped his hands in front of him on top of the desk and looked directly into
Hagen's eyes. "Tell me everything that happened," he said. He held up one of his hands.
"No, wait until Clemenza and Tessio arrive so you won't have to tell it all again."
It was only a few moments later that the two caporegimes were escorted into the room
by a bodyguard. They saw at once that the Don knew about his son's death because
the Don stood up to receive them. They embraced him as old comrades were permitted
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to do. They all had a drink of anisette which Hagen poured them before he told them the
story of that night.
Don Corleone asked only one question at the end. "Is it certain my son is dead?"
Clemenza answered. "Yes," he said. "The bodyguards were of Santino's regime but