Digital Manuscript ProjectL'Innommable / The Unnamable

[1606] the sleight of hand accomplished, Look,
life again, life everywhere and always,
the life that is on every tongue, the only possible!
[1607] Poor Worm, who thought he was different,
there he is in the madhouse for life.[1608] Where
am I?[1609] That is my first question, after a
life of listening.
[1622] Worm then I catch this sound which
will never stop, monotonous
beyond words, and yet at the same time not
devoid of a certain variety.
[1623] At the end of
I know not what eternity, they
don't say, this has sufficiently exasperated
my intelligence for it to grasp that here we
have a voice and that, in the natural world in
which already I may flatter myself on having
a foot, there are other noises even more un-
pleasant, which will make themselves heard
before long.
[1624] Don't tell me after that
that I had no predispositions for the common lot.
[1625] What a weary road since that first misfortune!
[1626] What nerves torn alive from the heart of insentience,
with the appertaining fears, and the cerebellum
on fire.[1627] It took him a long time
to adapt himself to this excoriation.
[1630]
The common lot.[1631] A joke.
[1632] That will not last for ever.[1633] To be enjoyed while
it lasts.[1634] They mentioned roses to me.[1635] I'll end
up by smelling them, that's the way it goes.
[1636]
Then they'll put the accent on the thorns.
[1637]
What prodigious variety.[1638] Thorns, these they'll
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L'Innommable / The Unnamable © 2013 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle, Shane Weller and Vincent Neyt