Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-9-3

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Segment 1

[2195.3] and lead you away, somewhere [xxx] else
perhaps where perhaps it's worse.
[2196] So much for the you, that's the you off
our mind.

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Segment 2

[2197] And now for the it, which
I prefer, which I must say I prefer,
what a memory, real fly-paper,
I don't know, I don't prefer it, that's
all I know so why bother about it,
a thing one doesn't prefer, imagine that,

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Segment 3

[2197] bother just imagine that, bothering
about that, never in [th] not on your life,
one must wait, discover a preference,
within your bosom, then it will be time
enough to institute an enquiry.

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Segment 4

[2198.1] Besides In any case,
that's right, connect, connect, you never
know, in any case their attitude towards
me has not changed, I was deceived, they
were deceived, they have deceived me,
they have tried to deceive me, saying that
their attitude towards me had changed,

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Segment 5

[2198.1] but they haven't deceived me, I didn't
understand what they were trying to do,
I didn't understand what they were trying
to do to me, I say what I'm told to say,
that's all there is about it, and perhaps
I don't, I don't know, I don't feel a
mouth on me, I don't feel the words jostling
in my mouth, and when you say a poem

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Segment 6

[2198.1] you love like, [xx xxx] if you like poetry,
in the tube, or in [x] bed, [to] for yourself,
the words are there, somewhere, without
making a sound the least sound,
I don't feel that either, words falling,
You [xxx] know where, nor whence, drops
of silence [through] the silence, I don't
feel it, I don't [a] feel a mouth on me,

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Segment 7

[2198.1] nor a head, do I feel an ear, frankly
now, do I feel an ear, no I don't, so
on me, well frankly I don't, so much the
worse, I don't feel an ear either, [2198.2] this is
awful, make an effort, I must feel some-
thing, yes, I feel something, they say I
feel something, I don't know what
it is, I don't know what I feel,

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Segment 8

[2198.2] tell me what I feel, I'll tell you who
I am, they'll tell me who I am, I
won't understand, but the thing will
be said, they will have said who I
am, and I'll have heard, without
an ear I'll have heard, and I'll have

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Segment 9

[2198.2] said it, without a mouth I'll have said
it, I'll have heard it inside me,
then in the same breath outside me,
perhaps that's what I feel, that
there's an outside and an inside
and I in the middle, perhaps

Transcription
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