
[0681] the name of my town,[₰] I resolved to stop by the kerb, to wait for
a passer-by with a friendly and intelligent air,[₰] and then to take whip[₰]
off my hat and to[₰] say, with my smile, I beg your pardon,[₰] Sir,
excuse me Sir, what is the name of this town, if you please?
[0682] For
the word once let fall I would know if it was the right word, the
one I was seeking, in my memory, or another,
[0683] and so would know[₰]
where I stood.
[0684] This resolution, actually formed as I rode along,
was never to be carried out, an absurd mishap prevented it.
[0685] Yes,
my resolutions were remarkable in this, that they were no sooner
formed than something always happened to prevent their execution.
[0686] That must be why I am even less resolute now than then, just as then
I was even less so too, than I once had been.
[0687] But to tell the truth (to
tell the truth!) I have never been particularly resolute, I mean
subject to taking [⁁]given to resolutions, but rather inclined to plunge
headlong into the shit, without knowing who was shitting against
whom or on which side I had the better chance of skulking with
sucfcess.
[0690] For I had hardly perfected my plan,
in my head, when my bicycle ran over a dog, as subsequently appeared,
and fell to the ground, with an ineptness all the more inexcusable unpardonable[₰]
as the dog, duly leashed, was not out on the road, but in on the
pavement, docile at its mistresse's heels.
[0691] Precautions are like
resolutions, to be taken with precaution.
[0692] The lady must have thought
she had left nothing to chance, so far as the safetlyy of her dog was
- Segments
Molloy © 2016 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Magessa O'Reilly, Dirk Van Hulle, Pim Verhulst and Vincent Neyt