Endgame

I use the words you taught me. If they don't mean anything any more, teach me others. Or let me be silent.

Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that… Yes, yes, it's the most comical thing in the world. And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the beginning. But it's always the same thing. Yes, it's like the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny, but we don't laugh any more.

HAMM: We're not beginning to... to... mean something? CLOV: Mean something! You and I, mean something! (Brief laugh.) Ah that's a good one!

Use your head, can't you, use your head, you're on earth, there's no cure for that!

I love order. It's my dream. A world where all would be silent and still, and each thing in its last place, under the last dust.

God damn you to hell, Sir, no, it's indecent, there are limits! In six days, do you hear me, six days, God made the world. Yes Sir, no less Sir, the WORLD! And you are not bloody well capable of making me a pair of trousers in three months!' 'But my dear Sir, my dear Sir, look at the world and look at my TROUSERS!

All life long, the same questions, the same answers.

Do you believe in the life to come? Mine was always that.

Finished, it's finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished. Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there's a heap, a little heap, the impossible heap. I can't be punished any more. I'll go now to my kitchen, ten feet by ten feet by ten feet, and wait for him to whistle me. Nice dimensions, nice proportions, I'll lean on the table, and look at the wall, and wait for him to whistle me.

My anger subsides, I'd like to pee.

Clov: If I don't kill the rat, he'll die. Hamm: That's right.

Old endgame lost of old, play and lose and have done with losing.

It's a rare thing not to have been bonny-- once.

HAMM: Scoundrel! Why did you engender me? NAGG: I didn't know. HAMM: What? What didn't you know? NAGG: That it'd be you. (Pause.)

Hamm: And the horizon? Nothing on the horizon? Clov: (Lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, exasperated): What in God's name would there be on the horizon? (Pause.) Hamm: The waves, how are the waves? Clov: The waves? (He turns the telescope on the waves.) Lead. Hamm: And the sun? Clove: (Looking) Zero. Hamm: But it should be sinking. Look again. Clov: (Looking) Damn the sun. Hamm: Is it night already then? Clov: (Looking) No. Hamm: Then what is it? Clov: (Looking) Gray. (Lowering the telescope, turning towards Hamm, louder.) Gray! (Pause, still louder.) GRRAY!

HAMM: In my house. (pause.) One day you’ll be blind, like me. You’ll be sitting there, a speck in the void, in the dark, for ever, like me. (pause.) One day you’ll say to yourself, I’m tired, I’ll sit down, and you’ll go and sit down. Then you’ll say, I’m hungry, I’ll get up and get something to eat. But you won’t get up. You’ll say, I shouldn’t have sat down, but since I have I’ll sit on a little longer, then I’ll get up and get something to eat. But you won’t get up and you won’t get anything to eat. (pause.) You’ll look at the wall a while, then you’ll say, I’ll close my eyes, perhaps have a little sleep, after that I’ll feel better, and you’ll close them. And when you open them again there’ll be no wall any more. (pause.) Infinite emptiness will be all around you, all the resurrected dead of all the ages wouldn’t fill it, and there you’ll be like a little bit of grit in the middle of the steppe. (pause.) Yes, one day you’ll know what it is, you’ll be like me, except that you won’t have anyone with you, because you won’t have had pity on anyone and because there won’t be anyone left to have pity on. (pause.)

There's something dripping in my head. A heart, a heart in my head.

Clov: Why this farce, day after day? Hamm: Routine. One never knows. [Pause.] Last night I saw inside my breast. There was a big sore. Clov: Pah! You saw your heart. Hamm: No, it was living. [Pause. Anguished.] Clov! Clov: Yes. Hamm: What's happening? Clov: Something is taking its course. [Pause.] Hamm: Clov! Clov: [impatiently] What is it? Hamm: We're not beginning to ... to ... mean something? Clov: Mean something! You and I, mean something! [Brief laugh.] Ah that's a good one! Hamm: I wonder. [Pause.]

Io mi dico... qualche volta, Clov, bisogna che tu riesca a soffrire meglio di così, se vuoi che si stanchino di punirti... un giorno. Mi dico... qualche volta, Clov, bisogna che tu sia presente meglio di così, se vuoi che ti la­scino partire... un giorno. Ma mi sento troppo vec­chio, e troppo lontano, per poter formare nuove abi­tudini. Bene, e allora non finirà proprio mai, non partirò proprio mai. (Pausa). Poi, un giorno, all'im­provviso, ecco che finisce, che cambia, io non capi­sco, ecco che muore, o forse sono io, non capisco neanche questo. Io lo domando alle parole che re­stano... sonno, risveglio, sera, mattina. Ma loro non sanno dirmi niente. (Pausa). Apro la porta del ca­pannone e me ne vado. Sono talmente curvo che ve­do solo i miei piedi, se apro gli occhi, e tra le gambe un po' di polvere nerastra. Mi dico che la terra si è spenta, benché io non l'abbia mai vista accesa. (Pau­sa). È facile andare. (Pausa). Quando cadrò, pian­gerò di gioia.

This is slow work. . . .Is it not time for my pain-killer?

Then one day, suddenly, it ends, it changes, I don’t understand, it dies, or it’s me, I don’t understand that either. I ask the words that remain— sleeping, waking, morning, evening. They have nothing to say.

Enough, it’s time it ended, in the refuge too. And yet I hestitate, I hestitate to… to end. Yes, there it is, it’s time it ended and yet I hestitate to – (he yawns) – to end.

Un giorno dirai a te stesso. Sono stanco, vado a sedermi, e andrai a sederti. Poi dirai a te stesso, Ho fame, ora mi alzo e mi preparo da mangiare. Ma non ti alzerai. Dirai a te stesso. Ho fatto male a sedermi, ma visto che mi sono seduto resterò seduto ancora un poco, poi mi alzerò e mi preparerò da mangiare. Ma non ti alzerai e non ti preparerai da mangiare. / Guarderai il muro per un poco, poi dirai a te stesso, Ora chiuderò gli occhi, forse dormirò un poco, dopo andrà meglio, e li chiuderai. E quando li riaprirai il muro non ci sarà più. Intorno a te ci sarà il vuoto infinito, tutti i morti di tutti i tempi non basterebbero, risuscitando, a colmarlo, e sarai come un sassolino in mezzo alla steppa. / Sì, un giorno saprai cosa vuol dire, sarai come me, solo che tu non avrai nessuno, perchè tu non avrai avuto pietà di nessuno e non ci sarà più nessuno di cui aver pietà.