Английский язык с Крестным Отцом

Hagen nodded. He hadn't really known the extent of the Don's power, not then. He did not really know in the ten years that followed until he was made the acting Consigliori after Genco Abbandando became ill. But he nodded and met the Don's eyes with his own. "I would work for you like your sons," Hagen said, meaning with complete loyalty, with complete acceptance of the Don's parental divinity. The Don, with that understanding which was even then building the legend of his greatness, showed the young man the first mark of fatherly affection since he had come into his household. He took Hagen into his arms for a quick embrace and afterward treated him more like a true son, though he would sometimes say, "Tom, never forget your parents," as if he were reminding himself as well as Hagen.

There was no chance that Hagen would forget. His mother had been near moronic and slovenly, so ridden by anemia she could not feel affection for her children or make a pretense of it. His father Hagen had hated. His mother's blindness before she died had terrified him and his own eye infection had been a stroke of doom. He had been sure he would go blind. When his father died, Tom Hagen's eleven-year-old mind had snapped in a curious way. He had roamed the streets like an animal waiting for death until the fateful day Sonny found him sleeping in the back of a hallway and brought him to his home. What had happened afterward was a miracle. But for years Hagen had had nightmares, dreaming he had grown to manhood blind, tapping a white cane, his blind children behind him tap-tapping with their little white canes as they begged in the streets. Some mornings when he woke the face of Don Corleone was imprinted on his brain in that first conscious moment and he would feel safe.

But the Don had insisted that he put in three years of general law practice in addition to his duties for the family business. This experience had proved invaluable later on, and also removed any doubts in Hagen's mind about working for Don Corleone. He had then spent two years of training in the offices of a top firm of criminal lawyers in which the Don had some influence. It was apparent to everyone that he had a flair for this branch of the law. He did well and when he went into the full-time service of the family business, Don Corleone had not been able to reproach him once in the six years that followed.

When he had been made the acting Consigliori, the other powerful Sicilian families referred contemptuously to the Corleone family as the "Irish gang." This had amused Hagen. It had also taught him that he could never hope to succeed the Don as the head of the family business. But he was content. That had never been his goal, such an ambition would have been a "disrespect" to his benefactor and his benefactor's blood family.

It was still dark (было все еще темно) when the plane landed in Los Angeles (приземлился). Hagen checked into his hotel (оформился в гостинице), showered and shaved (принял душ и побрился), and watched dawn (рассвет) come over the city. He ordered breakfast and newspapers to be sent up to his room (чтобы были присланы в номер) and relaxed until it was time for his ten A.M. appointment (пока не было пора отправляться на назначенную на десять утра встречу; to appoint [∂’poınt] – назначать) with Jack Woltz. The appointment had been surprisingly easy to make (удивительно = неожиданно легко было получить эту аудиенцию).

The day before (накануне), Hagen had called the most powerful man in the movie labor unions (в профсоюзах работников кино), a man named Billy Goff. Acting on instructions from Don Corleone, Hagen had told Goff to arrange an appointment (договориться о встрече; to arrange [∂’reındG] – приводить в порядок; устраивать) on the next day for Hagen to call on Jack Woltz, that he should hint to Woltz (намекнуть) that if Hagen was not made happy (если не будет удовлетворен: «сделан счастливым, довольным») by the results of the interview, there could be a labor strike at the movie studio (может быть забастовка). An hour later Hagen received a call from Goff. The appointment would be at ten A.M. Woltz had gotten the message about the possible labor strike (получил извещение о возможной забастовке) but hadn't seemed too impressed (но казался не слишком впечатленным), Goff said. He added, "If it really comes down to that (дойдет до этого), I gotta talk to the Don myself (= I got to talk – мне нужно будет поговорить)."