Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
Krapp's Last Tape / La Dernière Bande

MS-UoR-1227-7-7-1

X
Segment 1

[0247] been going all these years, namely that -
[0248] (A switches off machine, winds
tape forward, switches on again
)

X
Segment 2

[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 the dark I have struggled
to keep out of my work is in reality
its true -

X
Segment 3

[0250] (Curses, switches off, winds
forward, switches on
)
[0251] - strange
association till my dying day of storm
and night with the light of understanding
and the peace -
[0252] (Curses louder, switches
off, winds forward, switches on..
)

X
Segment 4

[0253] - my face in her breasts and my
hand on her.
[0254] We lay there without moving.[0255] But
underneath us all moved and moved us,
gently, up and down, and to and fro from side
to side.
[0256] (Pause.)

X
Segment 5

[0257] Past midnight.[0258] Never knew
such a silence.
[0261] [0260] (Pause.)
[0261] The coming year will decide. May I be
given the strength and the -
[0262] (A switches off, winds back tape,
switches on again.
)

X
Segment 6

[0263] - upper lake, with the punt, bathed
off the bank,
then pushed
out into the stream and drifted.
[0264] She lay stretched
out on the floorboards with her hands
under her head and her eyes closed.

X
Segment 7

[0265] Hot sun, with a 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.

X
Segment 8

[0268] I said I thought it
was hopeless and no good going on,
and she agreed, without opening her
eyes.
I asked her to look at me and
after a moment she did, but just slits, because

X
Segment 9

[0270] I asked her to look at me and
after a moment she did, but just slits, because
[0268] I said I thought it
was hopeless and no good going on,
and she agreed, without opening her
eyes.

Transcription
  • Segments