Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-10

X
Segment 1

[2195.3] perhaps it's worse.

X
Segment 2

[2196] So much for the you, that's the you off
our mind.
[2197] And now for the it, I prefer that, I must
say I prefer [] that, what a memory, real fly-paper, I don't know,
I don't prefer it [] any more, that's all I know, so why bother about
it, a thing you don't prefer, just think of that, bothering about
that, perish the thought, one must wait, discover a preference,
within one's bosom, then it will be time enough to institute
an inquiry.

X
Segment 3

[2198.1] Moreover, that's right, link, link, you never
know, moreover their attitude towards me has not changed, I am
deceived, they are deceived, they have deceived me, they have
tried to deceive me, saying their attitude towards me
had changed, but they haven't deceived me, I didn't understand
what they were trying to do, I didn't understand what they
were trying to do to me, I say what I'm told to say, that's
all there is to it, and yet I wonder, I don't know,

X
Segment 4

[2198.1] I don't feel a mouth on me, I don't feel the jostle of words
in my mouth, and when you say a poem you like, if you like
poetry, in the underground, or in bed, for yourself, the words are
there, somewhere, without the least sound, I don't feel that
either, words falling, you don't know where, you don't know whence,
drops of silence through the silence, I don't feel it, I don't
feel a mouth on me, nor a head, do I feel an ear, frankly
now, do I feel an ear, well frankly I don't, so much the worse,

X
Segment 5

[2198.1] I don't feel an ear either, [2198.2] this is awful, make an effort,
I must feel something, yes, I feel something, they say I
feel something, I don't know what it is, I don't know what I
feel, tell me what I feel and I'll tell you who I am, they'll tell
me who I am, I won't understand, but the thing will be said,
they will have said who I am, and I'll have heard, without an
ear I'll have heard, and I'll have said it, without a mouth
I'll have said it, I'll have heard it inside me, then in the

X
Segment 6

[2198.2] same breath outside me, perhaps that's what I feel, an outside and an inside and me in the middle, perhaps
that's what I am, the thing that divides the world in two,

X
Addition 1
perish the thought,
Transcription
  • Segments
  • Marginal Additions