Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-9-3

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Segment 1

[2323.2] before the sea, before the earth, before
the sky, at the window, against the
air, in summer, at evening, opening,
shutting, grey, black, grey, black,
I must have understood, I must
have wanted it, wanted the eye,
all for myself, I must have tried,
all the things they have told me, all

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Segment 2

[2323.2] the things I have tried, it comes
in useful still, when I think of it,
that too, you must go on thinking,
go on thinking the old thoughts,
they call that thinking, it's visions,
remains of visions, that's all you
can see, a few old images, a

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Segment 3

[2323.2] window, what need had they
to show me a window, saying, I
don't know, I don't remember,
it doesn't come back to me, a window,
saying, There are others, there are
others more beautiful, and the
rest, walls, sky, man, like

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Segment 4

[2323.2] Mahood, a little nature,
too long to repeat, too forgotten,
too little forgotten, was it neces-
sary, [2323.3] but was that how it happened,
who can have come here, the devil
perhaps, I don't see anyone
else, it's he showed me everything,
here, in the dark, and how to

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Segment 5

[2323.3] speak, and what to say, and a
little nature, and a few names,
and the outside of men, those in
my image, whom I might resemble,
and their way of living, in rooms,
in sheds, in caves, in woods, or
coming and going, I forget, and

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Segment 6

[2323.3] who went away and left me, knowing
I was tempted, knowing I was
lost, whether I succumbed or not,
have I succumbed or not, I don't
know, it isn't I, that's all I know,
since then it's not I any more, since
then there is no one any more, I must
have succumbed.

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Segment 7

[2324] All that is hy-
potheses, that helps you forward, I
believe in progress, I believe in
silence, ah yes, a few words on the silence,

Transcription
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