Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-10

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Segment 1

[0479] a moment more worthy [place = supralinear] worthier than grey to enfold me.[0480] What nonsense [place = supralinear] rubbish
all this business [place = supralinear] stuff about light and dark.
[0481] And how I have
wallowed in it.
[0482] But f [place = overwritten] do I roll, like [place = supralinear] in the manner of a true ball? Or am I in
equilibrium somewhere, on one of my innumerable [place = supralinear] numberless poles?
[0483] I
feel strongly tempted to know [place = supralinear] enquire [place = supralinear] discover.
[0484] What a chunk [place = supralinear] slice of discourse [place = supralinear] reams I
could squeeze [place = supralinear] elicit from this apparently so legitimate preoccupation.

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Segment 2

[0480] What nonsense [place = supralinear] rubbish
all this business [place = supralinear] stuff about light and dark.
[0481] And how I have
wallowed in it.
[0482] But f [place = overwritten] do I roll, like [place = supralinear] in the manner of a true ball? Or am I in
equilibrium somewhere, on one of my innumerable [place = supralinear] numberless poles?
[0483] I
feel strongly tempted to know [place = supralinear] enquire [place = supralinear] discover.
[0484] What a chunk [place = supralinear] slice of discourse [place = supralinear] reams I
could squeeze [place = supralinear] elicit from this apparently so legitimate preoccupation.

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Segment 3

[0481] And how I have
wallowed in it.
[0480] What nonsense [place = supralinear] rubbish
all this business [place = supralinear] stuff about light and dark.
[0482] But f [place = overwritten] do I roll, like [place = supralinear] in the manner of a true ball? Or am I in
equilibrium somewhere, on one of my innumerable [place = supralinear] numberless poles?
[0483] I
feel strongly tempted to know [place = supralinear] enquire [place = supralinear] discover.
[0484] What a chunk [place = supralinear] slice of discourse [place = supralinear] reams I
could squeeze [place = supralinear] elicit from this apparently so legitimate preoccupation.

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Segment 4

[0485] But which would not be credited to me.[0486] No, between me and
the right to silence, the living rest [place = supralinear] to rest before I end, stretches the same old
lesson, the lesson [place = supralinear] one I knew by heart and would not say, I don't
know why, [place = supralinear] perhaps for fear of the silence perhaps, or thinking any old
thing would do, and so lies for preference, in order to re-
maij [place = overwritten] n hidden. [place = inline] ,
[0487] No [place = supralinear] no importance.[0488] But now I shall say my lesson, if
I can remember it.

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Segment 5

[0489] Under the skies, on the roads, in the towns,
in the woods, in the mountains [place = supralinear] hills, in the plains, by the seas [place = supralinear] shores,
on the waves [place = supralinear] sea, behind my mannikins, I was not always sad, I
wasted [place = supralinear] ing my time, abjured [place = supralinear] ing my rights, suffered [place = supralinear] ing for nothing, for-
got [place = supralinear] getting my lesson. [Stet]
[0490] Then a little hee [place = overwritten] ll after my own heart, [place = supralinear] not too cruel, with
a few nice damned to hang [place = supralinear] foist my groans on, something sighing off
and on and the far off [place = supralinear] distant gleams of pity's flames fires biding
their hour to promote us to ashes.

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Segment 6

[0491] I speak, speak, because I
must, but I do not listen, I seek after my lesson, my life I
used to know and would not confess, whence possibly an
occasional slight lack of limpidity.
[0492] And perhal [place = overwritten] ps now once
again I shall do no more than seek after my lesson, and fail [place = supralinear] never
to say it, to the self-accompaniment of a language [place = supralinear] tongue that is
not mine.

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Segment 7

[0493] But instead of saying what I should not say have
said, and what I shall say no more, [place = supralinear] if I can, and what I shall say
perhaps, if I can, should In I not rather say some other
thing, even though it be [place = supralinear] is not yet the right thing?
[0494] I shall [place = supralinear] I'll [Stet]
try, I shall [place = supralinear] I'll try in another present, even though it be not
yet mine, without pauses, without tears, without eyes, with-
out reasons.

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Segment 8

[0495] Let us assume [place = supralinear] it be assumed [Stet] then that I am at rest, [place = supralinear] though it's unimportant
though this is, at rest or rolling never still, through the
air or in contact with other surfaces, or that I sometimes
roll [place = supralinear] move, sometimes rest, since I fel [place = overwritten] el nothing, neither quietude

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Metamark 1
Metamark: Stet Note: \'Stet\' in the margin.
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Metamark 2
Metamark: Stet Note: \'Stet\' in the margin.
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Metamark 3
Metamark: Stet Note: \'Stet\' in the margin.
Transcription
  • Segments
  • Metamarks