Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-9-2

X
Segment 1

[1969] it isn't earth, one doesn't know what it is,
it's like, it's sargasso, no, it's like
molasses, no, no matter, an eruption is
what's needed, to vomit him into the light.

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Segment 2

[1970] But what quiet calm, apart from the discourse,
not a breath, it's suspicious, the calm that
precedes life, no no, not all this time, it's like
slime, paradise, it would be paradise, but
for this noise, it's try life trying to get in,
no, trying to get him out, or little bubbles
bursting, all about, no, there's no air here,

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Segment 3

[1970] air is to suffo make you choke, light is to
close your eyes, that's where he must go,
where it's never dark, but here it's never
dark either, yes yes, here it's dark, this
grey
it's they who make this grey, with their
lamps.

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Segment 4

[1971] When they go, when they go silent,
it will be dark, not a sound, not a gleam,
but they'll never go, yes, they'll go silent
perhaps, and go away, one day, one evening,

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Segment 5

[1971] slowly, sadly, in Indian file, casting long
shadows, towards their master, who will
punish them, or spare them, there's nothing
else, up above, for those who lose, punishment,
pardon, so they say.

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Segment 6

[1972] What have you done with
your material?
[1973] We have left it behind.

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Segment 7

[1973] We have left it behind.
[1972] What have you done with
your material?

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Segment 8

[1974] But commanded to say whether yes or no wheth
they have closed filled up the holes, have you
filled up the holes yes or no, they'll say
yes and no, or some will say yes, the others
no, at the same time, for they don't know
the master wants to hear what answer the
master wants, to his question.

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Segment 9

[1975] But both
are defendable, both answers, for they did
xxx fill up the holes, if you like, but if
you don't like they didn't, for they didn't
know what to do, on departing, whether to
fill up the holes or, on the contrary, leave
them gaping wide.

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Segment 10

[1976] So they fixed their lamps,
their long lamps, in the holes, to prevent
them closing by themselves, it's like potter's
clay, their powerful lamps, lit xx lit and
trained on the within, to make him think

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Segment 11

[1976] they are still there, in spi notwithstanding
the silence, or to make him think the grey
is true, or to make sure he goes will go
on suffering, for he doesn't suffer only from
the noise, he suffers from the grey too, from

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Segment 12

[1976] the light, he must, it's preferable, or to
enable them to come back, if the master
the master commands them to, without his
xxx knowing they have gone, as if he could

Transcription
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