Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-10

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Segment 1

[2229.1] am far from my doors, far from my walls, someone would have to
wake the turnkey, there must be one somewhere, far from my
subject to, let us get back to it, it's gone, no longer there where
I thought I last saw it, strange this mixture of solid and
liquid, no longer the same, or else I mistake the place, yes,
it's the same, still there, in the same place, it's a pity,
I would have liked to lose it, I would have liked to lose me,
I'd like to lose me the way I could long ago, when I had some

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Segment 2

[2229.1] imagination, close my eyes and be in a wood, or at the seashore,
or in a town where I don't know anybody, it's night, everyone
has gone home, I walk in the streets, I [] lash into them one after
another, it's the town of my youth, I'm looking for my mother to
kill her, I should have thought of that earlier in the daya bit sooner,
before being born, it's raining, I'm all right, I stride along
on the crown of the street with great yaws to right and left,
[2229.2] now that's all over, with closed eyes I see the same thing as

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Segment 3

[2229.2] with them open, namely, wait, I'll say it, I'll try and say it,
I'm curious to know what it can possibly be that I see, with
closed eyes, with open eyes, nothing, I see nothing, well that
is a disappointment, I was hoping for something better than that,
is that what it is to be unable to lose yourself, I'm asking
myself a question, is that what it is, to see nothing, no matter
where I look, nor, eyeless, the little creature in his different
disguises coming and going, now in shadow, now in light, doing

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Segment 4

[2229.2] his best, seeking the means of staying among the living, of
getting off with his life, or shut up looking out of the window
at the ever changing sky, is that it, to be unable to lose myself,
I don't know, what did I see in the old days, out of my eye,
when I ventured a quick look, I don't know, I don't remember.

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Segment 5

[2230] There I am in any case equipped with eyes, which I open and
shut, two, perhaps blue, knowing it avails nothing, for I have
a head now too, where all kinds of things are known, can it be
of me I'm speaking, is it possible, of course
not, that's another thing I know, I'll speak of me when I speak

Transcription
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