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Английский язык с Крестным Отцом

Франк Илья

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broads you used to bang (трахал; to bang – стукнуть, хлопнуть)."

Nino waved his glass drunkenly and said very loud, "Yeah, they were ugly but they

were women." Deanna Dunn, in the corner, turned her head to look at them. Nino

waved his glass at her in greeting.

Johnny Fontane sighed. "OK, you're just a guinea peasant."

"And I ain't gonna change," Nino said with his charmingly drunken smile.

Johnny understood him perfectly. He knew Nino was not as drunk as he pretended.

He knew that Nino was only pretending so that he could say things which he felt were

too rude to say to his new Hollywood padrone when sober. He put his arm around

Nino's neck and said affectionately, "You wise guy bum (задница;

лодырь), you know

you got an ironclad (покрытый броней; жесткий, твердый) contract for a year and you

can say and do anything you want and I can't fire you."

"You can't fire me?" Nino said with drunken cunning.

"No," Johnny said.

"Then fuck you," Nino said.

For a moment Johnny was surprised into anger. He saw the careless grin on Nino's

face. But in the past few years he must have gotten smarter, or his own descent from

stardom had made him more sensitive. In that moment he understood Nino, why his

boyhood singing partner had never become successful, why he was trying to destroy

30

any chance of success now. That Nino was reacting away from all the prices of success,

that in some way he felt insulted by everything that was being done for him.

Johnny took Nino by the arm and led him out of the house. Nino could barely walk

now. Johnny was talking to him soothingly. "OK, kid, you just sing for me, I wanta make

dough on you. I won't try to run your life. You do whatever you wanta do. OK, paisan?

All you gotta do is sing for me and earn me money now that I can't sing anymore. You

got that, old buddy?"

Nino straightened up. "I'll sing for you, Johnny," he said, his voice slurring (to slur –

произносить невнятно; slur – /расплывшееся/ пятно) so that he could barely be

understood. "I'm a better singer than you now. I was always a better singer than you,

You know that?"

Johnny stood there thinking; so that was it. He knew that when his voice was healthy

Nino simply wasn't in the same league with him, never had been in those years they

had sung together as kids. He saw Nino was waiting for an answer, weaving drunkenly

in the California moonlight. "Fuck you," he said gently, and they both laughed together

like the old days when they had both been equally young.

When Johnny Fontane got word about the shooting of Don Corleone he not only

worried about his Godfather, but also wondered whether the financing for his movie was

still alive. He had wanted to go to New York to pay his respects to his Godfather in the

hospital but he had been told not to get any bad publicity, that was the last thing Don

Corleone would want. So he waited. A week later a messenger came from Tom Hagen.

The financing was still on but for only one picture at a time.

Meanwhile Johnny let Nino go his own way in Hollywood and California, and Nino was

doing all right with the young starlets. Sometimes Johnny called him up for a night out

together but never leaned on him (to lean on –

опираться, полагаться; to lean –

наклоняться; прислоняться). When they talked about the Don getting shot, Nino said

to Johnny, "You know, once I asked the Don for a job in his organization and he

wouldn't give it to me. I was tired of driving a truck and I wanted to make a lot of dough.

You know what he told me? He says every man has only one destiny and that my

destiny was to be an artist. Meaning that I couldn't be a racket guy."

Johnny thought that one over. The Godfather must be just about the smartest guy in

the world. He'd known immediately that Nino could never make a racket guy, would only

get himself in trouble or get killed. Get killed with just one of his wisecracks (удачная

31

острота, саркастическое замечание). But how did the Don know that he would be an

artist? Because, goddamn it, he figured that someday I'd help Nino. And how did he

figure that? Because he would drop the word to me and I would try to show my gratitude.

Of course he never asked me to do it. He just let me know it would make him happy if I

did it. Johnny Fontane sighed. Now the Godfather was hurt, in trouble, and he could

kiss the Academy Award good-bye with Woltz working against him and no help on his

side. Only the Don had the personal contacts that could apply pressure and the

Corleone Family had other things to think about. Johnny had offered to help, Hagen had

given him a curt no.

Johnny was busy getting his own picture going. The author of the book he had starred

in had finished his new novel and came west on Johnny's invitation, to talk it over

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