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,
fo 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, one 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, m[a]n, 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 [who] 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 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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