Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-9-3

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Segment 1

[2330.7] that lasts, but it didn't last, I don't
understand, that is to say it did, it
still lasts, I'm still in it, I left
myself behind in it there, I'm waiting
for me there, [2330.8] no, there you don't wait,
you don't listen, I don't know, it's a
dream, perhaps it's a dream, that
would surprise me, I'll wake, in the

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Segment 2

[2330.8] silence, and go to sleep never go to
sleep again, it will be I, or dream
again, dream of a silence, a dream
silence, full of murmurs, I don't know,
that's all words, never wake, xx all
words, there's nothing else, I you must go
on, that's all I know, they a they're
going to stop, I know that feeling,

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Segment 3

[2330.8] when they are going to abandon me,
it will be the silence, for a moment, a
good few moments, or it will be mine,
the one that lasts, that didn't last,
that still lasts, it will be I, you must
go on, I can't go on, you must go on,
I'll go on, you must say words, as
long as there are any, I must say

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Segment 4

[2330.8] them, until they find me, until
they say me, strange pain, strange sin,
you must go on, perhaps it's done
already, perhaps they have said me
already, perhaps they have carried me
to the threshold of my story, before
the door that opens on my story, that
would surprise me, if it opens, it

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Segment 5

[2330.8] will be me, it will be the silence, in
the place where I am, I don't know,
I'll never know, in the silence you
don't know, you must go on, I can't
go on, I'll go on.

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Segment 6

This is the original MS of my translation of L'Innommable
For my friend Jake Schwartz,
with my best wishes.
Samuel Beckett
March 1958

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Date 1
23.2.1958
Ussy
Transcription
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