Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
Malone meurt / Malone Dies

MS-HRC-SB-4-3

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Segment 1

[0635] and rooting everywhere. [0637] And the cupboard, far from containing my
boot, is empty.
[0638] No, I am now without this boot, just as I am now
without certain other objects of less value, which I thought I
had preserved, among them a zinc ring that shone like silver.
[0639] I note on the other hand, in the heap, the presence of two or
three objects I had quite forgotten and one of which at least,
the bowl of a pipe, strikes no chord in my memory.
[0640] I do not
remember ever having smoked a tobacco-pipe.

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Segment 2

[0641] I remember the
soap-pipe with which, as a child, I used to blow bubbles, an odd
bubble.
[0642] Never mind, this bowl is now mine, wherever it comes from.
[0643] A number of my treasures are derived from the same source. [0644] I also
discovered a little packet tied up in age-yellowed newspaper.
[0645] It reminds me of something, but of what? [0646] I drew it over beside the
bed and felt it with the knob of my stick.

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Segment 3

[0647] And my hand understood,
it understood softness and lightness, better I think than if it
had touched the thing directly, fingering it and weighing it
in its palm.
[0648] I resolved, I don't know why, not to undo it. [0649] I sent
it back into the corner, with the rest.
[0650] I shall speak of it
again perhaps, when the time comes.

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Segment 4

[0651] I shall say, I can hear
myself already, Item, a little packet, soft, and light as a
feather, tied up in newspaper.
[0652] It will be my little mystery, all
my own.
[0653] Perhaps it is a lack of rupees. [0654] Or a lock of hair.

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Segment 5

[0655] I told myself too taht [] I must make better speed. [0656] True lives
do not tolerate this excess of circumstance.
[0657] It is there the
demon lurks, like the gonococcus in the folds of the prostate.
[0658] My time is limited. [0659] It is thence that one fine day, when all
nature smiles and shines, the rack lets loose its black unfor-

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Metamark 1
Metamark: Note: Transposition symbol.
Transcription
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