Digital Manuscript ProjectKrapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande

[0246]
place left in my memory, and no thankfulness, for the
miracle that - - [place = overwritten] (pause) - for [place = overwritten] r the fire that set it alight.
[0247] What I saw then was that the assumption I had been going on
all my life, namely -[0248] (A switches off impatiently,
winds tapes forward, switches on again)[0249] - granite rocks the
foam flying up in the light of the beacon and the anemometer
spinning like a propellor, clear to me at last that g [place = overwritten] the
dae [place = overwritten] rk I have struggled to keep at bay [place = supralinear] been fighting off all this time is in reality my most -
[0247] What I saw then was that the assumption I had been going on
all my life, namely -[0248] (A switches off impatiently,
winds tapes forward, switches on again)[0249] - granite rocks the
foam flying up in the light of the beacon and the anemometer
spinning like a propellor, clear to me at last that g [place = overwritten] the
dae [place = overwritten] rk I have struggled to keep at bay [place = supralinear] been fighting off all this time is in reality my most -
[0250] (A curses, switches off, wind [place = inline] s tapes forward, switches on
again)[0251] - unshatterable association till my dying day of
storm and night with the light of the understanding and -
[0252] (A curses louder, switches switches off, winds tape [place = supralinear] violently for-
ward, switches on again)[0253] - my face in her breat [place = overwritten] sts and my
hand on her.[0254] We lay there without moving.[0255] But underneath us
all moved, and move [place = inline] d us, gently [place = supralinear] sofly [place = margin left] gently, up and down, and from side
to side.
[0263] - upper lake, with the punt, bathed off the bank, then
pushed out into the stream and drifted.[0264] She lay stretcg [place = overwritten] hed
out on the floorboards with her hands under her head and
her eyes closed.[0265] Blazing Sun blazing down, bit of a breeze,
and the water nice and lively.[0266] I noticed a scratch on her
thigh and asked her how she got it.[0267] Picking gooseberries,
she said.[0268] I said again I thought it was hopeless and no
good going on, and she agreed, without opening her eyes.
[0270] I asked her to look at me and after a few moments - (pause)
- after a few moments she did, but the eyes just slits,
because of the glare.[0271] I bent over her to get them in the
shadowed and they opened.[0272] (Pause. [0273] Low.)[0274] Let me in.[0275] (Pause.)
[0276] We drifted in among the reeds and stuck.[0277] The way they bent,
sighing, before the stem.
[0279] I lay down across her with my
face in her brea [place = inline] sts and my hand on her.[0280] We lay without mov-
ing.[0281] But underneath us all moved, and move [place = inline] d us, [⁁] [place = supralinear] gently [place = supralinear] sofly [place = margin left] gently, up and down,
and from side to side.
[0282] Pause.
[0283] Past midnight.[0284] Never knew -
[0285] As A switches off, sits brooding [place = supralinear] broods, [0286] fumbles in his waistcoat
pockets, tal [place = overwritten] kes out an om [place = overwritten] ld envelope, fumbles, puts back the
envelope, looks at his watch, gets up and goes front right
backstage into darkness. [0287] Ten seconds. [0288] Sound of bottle againt
against glass, then brief siphon.
[0292] He comes back front
left into light, with an unused tape in his hand, sits
down, takes tape off machine, lays it on table, puts the
- Segments
- Marginal Additions
Krapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande © 2015 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle and Vincent Neyt