Digital Manuscript ProjectL'Innommable / The Unnamable

[1396] it is not that they wish for me.[1397] For it has happened to me many
times already, without their having granted me as much as a brief
sick leave, among the worms, before resurrecting me.[1398] But who knows,
this time, what the future holds in store.[1399] That qua sentient and
thinking being I should be deteriorating at headlong speed going downhill fast is in
any case an excellent thing.
[1400] Perhaps some day some gentleman,
happening chancing to pass my way with his sweet heart on his arm, at the
precise moment when my last is favouring me with a final taste of
the flight of time, will exclaim, loud enough for me to hear, Oh
I say, this man is ailing, we must call an ambulance.[1401] Thus at with a
single stroke stone, when all seemed in vain lost, the two longedf for rare
birds.[1402] I shall be dead, but I shall have lived.
[1403] Unless one is to
suppose him victim of a hallucination.[1404] Yes, to dispel all doubt
his betrothed would need to say, You are right, my love, he looks
as if he were going to throw up.[1405] Then I'd know for certain,[1406] and with
giving up the ghost be born at last, to the sound perhaps of one
of those hiccups which mar alas too often the somlenmnity of the last trépas
moments passing..
[1407] When Mahood I once knew a doctor who held that scientifically speaking the latest
breath could only issue from the fundament and that this [⁁] therefore, rather than
the mouth, was the orifice to which the family should present the mirror,
before opening th will the will.[1408] However this may be, and without
dwelling further on these macabre details, it is certain I was
grievously mistaken in supposing that death in itself could be
regarded as evidence, or even a strong presumption, in favour of
a preliminary life.
[1409] And I for my part have no longer the least
desire to leave this world, in which they keep trying to foist me,
with[⁁]out some kind ofnassurance that I was really there, sucha as a
kick in the arse for example, or a kiss, the nature of the attention
is of little importance, provided I cannot be suspected of being
its author.
[1412] How all becomes clear and simple when one opens an eye
- Segments
L'Innommable / The Unnamable © 2013 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle, Shane Weller and Vincent Neyt