Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-9-3

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Segment 1

[2317] cause is heard, it is not he, he who I know
I am, that's my only knowledge, he
who I cannot say I am, I can't say
anything, I've tried, I'm trying,
he knows nothing, knows of nothing, [nor]
neither what it is to speak, nor what
it is to hear, to know [x] nothing, be
capable of nothing, and to have to try,

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Segment 2

[2317] you don't try any more, you don't need to
try, it goes [xx] on by itself, it drags
on by itself, from word to word,
a weary whirl, you are inside it
somewhere, everywhere, not he,
if I could forget him, have one second,
a second of this noise that sweeps me
away, without having to say, I

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Segment 3

[2317] don't say it, I haven't the time,
It's not [hi] me, I am him, after
all, why not, why not say it, I must
have said it, might as well that as
anything else, it's not me, it's not
me, I can't, it came like that, it
comes like that, it's not me, if this
could be about him, if this could

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Segment 4

[2317] pass as him come to be about him,
I'd deny him with pleasure, if that could
would be a help, it's me, here's it's me,
speak to me of him, let me speak of
him, I never asked for anything,
make me speak of him, what a
mess, [there] there is no one left,
long may it last. that last.

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Segment 5

[2318] That's
what it comes to [the end] in the end, the
survival of that alone, then the words come
back, someone says I, unbelieving.

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Segment 6

[2319] If I could make an effort, an effort of
attention, to try and [fi] discover what's
happening, what's happening to me, what
then, I don't know, I've forgotten the
apodosis, but I can't, I don't even
hear anything more, I'm sleeping, they
call that sleeping, there they are again,

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Segment 7

[2319] we'll have to start killing them again,
I hear this awful noise horrible noise,
coming back takes time, I don't know
where from, I was nearly there, I
nearly slept, I call that sleeping, there
is no one but me, there was never anyone
but me, here I mean, elsewhere is a

Transcription
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