Digital Manuscript ProjectL'Innommable / The Unnamable

[2326.3] there is, somewhere, I'll never know.
[2327] But when it falters and
when it stops, but it falters every instant, it stops every
instant, yes, but when it stops for a good few moments, a good
few moments, what are a good few moments, [⁁] what then, then there are murmurs, there must
be murmurs , and listening, someone listening, no need of an
ear, no need of a mouth, the voice listens, as when it speaks,
listens to its silence, that makes a murmur, that makes
a voice , a small voice, the same voice only small, it sticks
[2327] in the throat, there's the throat again, there's the mouth again,
it fills the ear, then I vomit, someone vomits, someone starts
to vomit again, that must be how it happens, I have no explanatios
to offer, none to ask for, the comma will come where I'll drown for
good, then the silence, I believe it this evening, still
this evening, how it drags on, that's all right with me, perhaps
it's the springtime, violets, no, that's the autumn, there's a
time for everything, for the things that pass, the things that
[2327] end, they could never get
me to understand that, the things that stir, depart, return,
a light changing, they could never get me to see that, and death
into the bargain, a voice dying, that's a good one, silence at
last, not a murmur, no air, no one listening, not for the likes
of me, amen, on we go.
[2328.1] Enormous prison, like a hundred thousand
cathedrals, never anything else any more, from this time forth,
and in it, somewhere, perhaps, riveted, tiny, the prisoner,
how can he be found, how false this space is, what falseness in-
stantly, to want to draw that round you, to want to put a being
there, a cell would be enough, if I gave up, if I could only give
up, before beginning, before beginning again, what breathlessness,
that's right, ejaculations, that helps you on, that puts off the
[2328.1] fatal hour, no, it's the reverse, I don't know, start
again, in this immensity, this obscurity, go through the motions
of starting again, you who cannot stir, you who never started,
you the who, go through the motions, what motions, you can't stir,
you launch your voice, it dies away in the vault, it calls that
a vault, perhaps it's the firmament, perhaps it's the abyss, those
are words, it speaks of a prison, that's all right with me, vast
enough for a whole people, for me alone, or waiting for me, I'll
- Segments
L'Innommable / The Unnamable © 2013 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle, Shane Weller and Vincent Neyt