سه شنبه 27 بهمن

Part 3/the last part:

Light and heat remain linked as though supplied by the same source of which still no trace. Still on the ground,bent in three,the head against the wall at B,the arse against the wall at A,the knees against the wall between B and C,the feet against the wall between C and A,ahat is to say inscribed in the semicircle ACB,merging in the white ground were it not for the long hair of strangely imperfect whiteness,the white body of a woman finally. Similarly inscribed in the other semicircle,against the wall his head at A,his arse at B,his knees between A and D,his feet between D and B,the partner. On their right sides therefore both and back to back head to arse. Hold a mirror to their lips,it mists. With their left hands they hold their left legs a littlt below the knee,with their right hands their left arms a little above the elbow. In this agitated light,its great white calm now so rare and brief,inspection is not easy. Sweat and mirror notwithstanding they might well pass for inanimate but for the left eyes which at incalculable intervals suddenly open wide and gaze in unblinking exposure long beyond what is humanly possible. Piercing pale blue the effect is striking,in the beginning. Never the two gazes together except once,when the beginning of one overlapped the end of the other,for about ten seconds. Neither fat nor thin,big nor small,the bodies seem whole and in fairly good condition,to judge by the surfaces exposed to view. The faces too,assuming the two sides of a piece,seem to want nothing essential. Between their absolute stillness and the convulsive light the contrast is striking,in the beginning,for one who still remembers having been struck by the contrary. It is clear however,from a thousand little signs too long to imagine,that they are not sleeping. Only murmur ah,no more,in this silence,and at the same instant for the eye of prey the infinitesimal shudder instantaneously suppressed. Leave them there,sweating and icy,there is better elsewhere. No,life ands and no,there is nothing elsewhere,and no question now of ever finding again that white speck lost in whiteness,to see if they still lie still in the stress of that storm,or of a worse storm,or in the black dark for good,or the great whiteness unchanging,and if not what they are doing.

samuel beckett
1965