Fascinating story, here told by Peter Chrisp: The sentence it took Joyce twelve years to write
Riverrun
People have also read into the word the Italian ‘riverranno’: (they) will come again; the French ‘rêverons’ ((we) will dream) and ‘reverrons’: (we) will see again, (we) will meet again; and the German ‘erinnerung’ (remembrance). It’s also an echo of Coleridge’s ‘Where Alph, the sacred river, ran’ and ‘Reverend’ (615.12), the opening of Anna Livia’s letter which is delivered at the very end of the book.
