Digital Manuscript ProjectMalone meurt / Malone Dies

[1605] with what he had done, and with his monstrous error of appreciat-
ion, instead of sprining springing up and hurrying on he turned over on
his back, thus offering all his front to the deluge.
[1606] And it was
then his hair appeared clearly for the first time since his walks
bare-headed in the smiling haunts of his youth, his hat having
remained in the place which his head had just left.
[1607] For when,
lying on your stomach in a wild and practically illimitable part
of the country, you turn over on your back, then then[⁁]re[re] is a side-
ways movement of the whole body, including the head, unless you
make a point of avoiding it, and the head comes to rest at x
inches approximately from where it was before, x being the width
of the shoulders in inches, for the head is right in the middle
of the shoulders.
[1608] But when you are in a narrow bed, a pallet say
a[⁁] I[I] mean one just wide enough to contain you, a pallet shall we
say, then it is in vain you turn over on your back, then back over [over] on
your stomach, the head remains always in the same place, unless
you make a point of inclining it to the right or to the left, and
some there doubtless are who go to this trouble, in the hope of
finding a little freshness.
[1609] He tried to look at the dark streaming
mass which was all that remained of sky and air, but the rain
hurt his eyes and shut them.
[1610] He opened his mouth and lay for a
long time thus, his mouth [⁁] open and his hands also and as far apart as
possible from each other.
[1611] For it is a curious thing, one tends less
to lc[⁁]clutch the ground when on one's back than when on one's stom-
ach, there is a curious remark which might be worth following up.
[1612] And just as an hour before he had pulled up his sleeve[⁁][e]s the better
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Malone meurt / Malone Dies © 2017 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle, Pim Verhulst and Vincent Neyt