Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-9-3

X
Segment 1

[2326.2] rending cries, inarticulate murmurs,
to be invented, as I go along, im-
provised, as I groan along, I'll
laugh, that's how it will end,
with chuckling, chuck chuck, ow, ha,
pah, I'll practise, nyum, hoo, plop,
[psss] pss, nothing but emotion, bing,
bang, that's blows, ow, ay, what else,

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Segment 2

[2326.2] ooh, aah, that's love, enough, it's tiring,
hee hee, that's the ribs, of Democritus,
no, the other, in the end, it's the end,
the ending end, it's the silence, a few
gurgles on the silence, the true real [x] silence,
not the one where I macerate, up to
the mouth, up to the ear, which
covers, uncovers me, breathes with me,

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Segment 3

[2326.2] like a cat with a mouse, that of the
drowned, [2326.3] I've drowned, more than
once, it wasn't [it, I've] I, I've [choked]
myself, set fire to me, beaten on my
head with wood and iron, it wasn't I,
there was no head, no iron, I didn't
do anything to myself, I didn't do
anything to anybody, anyone, no one

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Segment 4

[2326.3] did anything to me, there is no one,
there is no wood, I've looked, there is
only I, no, not I either, I've looked
everywhere, there must be someone,
this voice must belong to someone, I
have no objection, I
I'm quite [xxx],
what it wills I will, [I am] that's
all right with me, what it wants I want,

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Segment 5

[2326.3] I am it, I've said so, it says so,
from time to time it says so, then it
says not, that's all right with me, I
want it to go silent, it wants to go
silent, it can't, it does for a second,
then it starts again, that's not true
the real silence, it says that's not the
real silence, what's to be said what

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Segment 6

[2326.3] can be said of the real silence, I don't
know, that I don't know what it is,
that there's no such thing, that perhaps
there is such a thing, yes, that perhaps
there is, somewhere, I'll never know.

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Segment 7

[2327] But when it falters and when it stops,
but it falters all every instant, it stops
[all] every instant, yes, but when it stops
for a good few moments, a good few
moments, what are a good few
moments, there are murmurs murmurs,

Transcription
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