
[1294] familiar monument, so that I might say, I am in my town, after all, I
have been there all the time.
[1295] The town was waking, doors opening and
shutting, soon the noise would be deafening.
[1296] But espying a narrow alley
between two high buildings I looked about me, then slipped into it.
[1297]
Little windows overlooked it, on either side, on every floor,
[1298] facing one another.
[1299] Lavatory lights I suppose.
[1300] There are things from time to time,
in spite of everything, that impose themselves on the understanding with
the force of axioms, for unknown reasons.
[1301] There was no way out of the
alley, it was not so much an alley as a blind alley.
[1302] At the end there
were two recesses, no, that's not the word, opposite each other, littered
with miscellaneous rubbish and with excrements, of dogs and masters,
some dry and odourless, others still [⁁]moist.
[1303] Ah those papers [⁁]never to be read again, perhaps never read.
[1304] Here lovers must have lain at
night and exchanged their vows.
[1305] I entered one of the alcoves, wrong
again, and [⁁]leaned against the wall.
[1306] I would have preferred to lie down
and there was no proof that I [⁁]would not.
[1307] But for the moment I was content
to lean against the wall, my feet far from the wall, on the verge of
slipping, but I had other props, the tips of my crutches.
[1308] But a few
minutes later I crossed the alley into the other chapel, that's
the word, where I felt I [⁁]might feel better, and settled myself in the
same hypotenusal posture.
[1309] And at first I did actually seem to feel a
little better,
[1310] but little by little I acquired the conviction that such
was not the case.
[1311] A fine rain was falling and I took off my hat to give
my skull the benefit of it, my skull all cracked and furrowed and [⁁]on fire,
[⁁]on fire.
[1312] But I also took it off because it was digging into my neck,
because of the thrust of the wall.
[1313] So I had two good reasons for taking
it off and they were none too many, neither alone would ever have
prevailed I feel.
[1314] I threw it [⁁]from me with a careless lavish gesture and
back it came, at the end of its string or lace, and after a few throes
- Segments
Molloy © 2016 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Magessa O'Reilly, Dirk Van Hulle, Pim Verhulst and Vincent Neyt