Digital Manuscript ProjectL'Innommable / The Unnamable

[1161] this place again, where my jar stands on its
pedestal, with its garland of many-coloured
lanterns, and me inside it, I lost my [xxx] hold
I couldn't cling to it.
[1162] [Me ]perhaps [they will] They will perhaps have me struck
to vary they will [strike with lightning or]
lightning, or poleaxed, on a bank-holiday evening,
then bundled [xx] in a shroud and whisked away,
out of sight and mind.
[1162] They will perhaps have
me struck with lightning, for a change, or
poleaxed, one merry bank-holiday evening,
then bundled in a shroud and whisked away,
out of sight and mind.
[1165]
But little by little I'll get used to it, with their
help, used to the place, used to me, and little
by little the old problem will raise its horrid head,
how to live, with their kind of life, for a single second, young or old,
without help or guidance.
[1166] And [this] being thus
reminded of other attempts, under other [x] con-
ditions, I shall start asking myself questions,
helped by them, prompted by them, like those
I have just been asking, about me, about concerning me, and them, and these
them
sudden changes of time and age, and how
to succeed at last [xxx] where I had always failed,
[1166] so that they may be pleased, and perhaps leave
me in peace at last, and free to [pursue] my own
devices,that is namely to try and please the to do what I want,
other[th] namely try
and please the other, if that is what I want,
[1166] so that he may be pleased, and leave me at
peace, and give me quittance, and the right
to rest, and [the ri] to silence, if that is in
his gift.
[1167] It's a lot to expect from one
creature, it's a lot to demand of him,
that he should first behave as if he did not was not
exist, then as if he did was, before being
admitted to that peace where he neither is, nor
is not, and where the language dies that [reduces]
one to such expressions.
[1168] Two lies falsehoods,
two apparels, to suffer to the end, before I
can be let loose, alone, in the unthinkable
unspeakable, where I have not ceased to
be, where they will not let me be.
- Segments
L'Innommable / The Unnamable © 2013 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle, Shane Weller and Vincent Neyt