Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
Malone meurt / Malone Dies

MS-HRC-SB-4-3

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Segment 1

[2720] times, four times, at a pinch. [2721] A land receding, another approach-
ing, big and little islands.
[2722] No sound save the oars, the rowlocks,
the blue sea against the keel.
[2723] In the stern-sheets Lady Pedal, sad.
[2724] What beauty! she murmured. [2725] Alone, not understood, good, too good.
[2726] Taking off her glove she trailed in the transparent water her
sapphire-laden hand.

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Segment 2

[2727] Four oars, no rudder, the oars steer. [2728] My creart-
ures, what of them?
[2729] Nothing. [2730] They are there, each as best he can, as
best he can be somewhere.
[2731] Lemuel watches the steeples rising
mountains rising behind the steeples beyond the harbour, no, they
are no more

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Segment 3

[2732] No, they are no more than hills, [2733] they raise themselves gently,
faintly blue, out of the confused plain.
[2734] It was there somewhere he
was born, in a fine house, of loving parents.
[2735] Their slopes are
covered with ling and furze, its hot yellow bells, better known as
gorse.
[2736] The hammers of the stone-cutters ring all day like bells.

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Segment 4

[2737] The island. [2738] A last effort. [2739] The islet. The shore facing the open
sea is jagged with creeks.
[2740] One could live there, perhaps happy, if
life was a possible thing, but novbody lives there.
[2741] The deep water
comes washing into its heart, between high walls of rock.
[2742] One day
nothing will remain of it but two islands, separated by a gulf,
narrow at first, then wider and wider as the centuries slip by,
two islands, two reefs.
[2743] It is difficult to speak of man, under such
conditions.
[2744] Come, Ernest, said Lady Pedal, let us find a place to

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Addition 1
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Transcription
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