GR translation: rolling right behind

[Mike Jing]

On Sun, Apr 24, 2022 at 12:30 PM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> >>  suddenly in the sky, miles behind his back and up the river
> >> mementomori a sharp crack and a heavy explosion, rolling right behind,
> >> almost like a clap of thunder.
>
> Does anyone else wonder why  there is a comma before rolling right behind
> as well as after? This is my only problem with D Morris’s interpretation
> which seems very sensible and obvious otherwise.  Why not just a single
> comma after behind? To me the punctuation makes it seem like it reaches
> further back in the sentence or is more inclusive than the heavy explosion.
> Could it refer to the “river memento mori”, which is a peculiar turn of
> phrase, or perhaps to the sky, or to the moment he was reaching to pick his
> nose?
>

The comma is indeed a bit mystifying. That's partly why I wasn't completely
sure.


>   And... What does "up the river mementomori" mean? Here’s an explosion in
> the sky and miles behind him  which locates it in space; an explosion
> happening  just as he was reaching to pick his nose, which makes it
> temporal; but also an explosion happening up a river here labeled "remember
> you will die”.
>

I always thought here "mementomori" is used a as an adverb, in parallel to
"miles behind his back and up the river", but I could certainly be wrong.