Digital Manuscript ProjectL'Innommable / The Unnamable

[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.
[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,
[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 it's they who make this grey, with their
grey
lamps.
[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,
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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
[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
[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
- Segments
L'Innommable / The Unnamable © 2013 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle, Shane Weller and Vincent Neyt