Digital Manuscript ProjectL'Innommable / The Unnamable

[2198.2] that's what I am, the thing that
divides the world in two, on the
one side the outside, on the other the
inside, that can be as thin as a blade,
foil, I'm neither one side nor the other,
I'm in the middle, I'm the partition,
I've two surfaces and no thickness,
[2198.2] perhaps that's what I feel, I feel
myself vibrating, I'm the tympanum,
on the one side the skull, on the other
the world, I don't belong to one or either, it's not to me they're
the other
talking, it's not of me they're talk-
ing, [2198.3] no, that's not it, I feel nothing
of all that, try something else, herd
[2198.3] of swine, say something else, for me to
hear, I don't know how, for me to repeat,
I don't know how, what clowns they
are, always to keep on saying the same
thing, when they know it's not the
right one, no, they know nothing
either, they forget, they think they change
and they never change, they'll be there
[2198.3] saying the same thing until they die,
then perhaps a little silence, to give the
next gang time to arrive on the site,
I alone am immortal, what can you
expect, I can't get born, perhaps that's
their plan, to keep on saying the same
thing, generation after generation,
[2198.3] until I lose my temper and begin
to scream, then they'll say, He has
mewled, he's bound to rattle, it's
mechanical, let's get to hell out of
here, there's no point in assisting at
that, others need us, [for] for him it's over,
his troubles will be over, he's saved, we've
saved him, they're all the same, they
[2198.3] all let themselves be saved, they all
let themselves be born, he was a tough
nut, he'll distinguish himself have a
brilliant career, in fury and remorse,
he'll never forgive himself, and so
depart, thus communing, in Indian
[2198.3] file, or two by two, along the shore, seashore, it's a seashore, on
it's a
the pebbles, on the sands, in the evening
air, it's evening, that's all is known,
evening, shadows, somewhere, any-
where, on the earth.
[2199] [Yes] My temper, yes,
but there it is, I'll never lose it, and
evening isn't sure either, it needn't be
evening, dawn too [casts] [gives] long shadows,
- Segments
L'Innommable / The Unnamable © 2013 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle, Shane Weller and Vincent Neyt