What is Azrael's quote at the end of "Reaper Man" supposed to mean?

Question

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett, part of the Discworld universe, leaves off like this:

Picture a tall, dark figure, surrounded by cornfields...
NO, YOU CAN'T RIDE A CAT. WHO EVER HEARD OF THE DEATH OF RATS RIDING A CAT? THE DEATH OF RATS WOULD RIDE SOME KIND OF DOG.
Picture more fields, a great horizon-spanning network of fields, rolling in gentle waves...
DON'T ASK ME I DON'T KNOW. SOME KIND OF TERRIER, MAYBE.
...fields of corn, alive, whispering in the breeze...
RIGHT, AND THE DEATH OF FLEAS CAN RIDE IT TOO. THAT WAY YOU CAN KILL TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE.
...awaiting the clockwork of the seasons.
METAPHORICALLY.

And at the end of all stories Azrael, who knew the secret, thought: I REMEMBER WHEN ALL THIS WILL BE AGAIN.

What is "I remember when all this will be again" supposed to mean? Why "remember"? All what will be again? And how will it be "again"?

What does this quote mean?

Answer 1

Here is a similar quote from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series:

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose above the great mountainous island of Tremalking. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

The idea is, in both quotes, that time is more of a circle than a line, so you can remember things that will happen, because everything happens over and over. The Pratchett reference to "the clockwork of the seasons" reinforces that -- clocks do 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock and so on and then back around to 2 o'clock again just as the seasons go spring, summer, fall and so on around and around again.

In the Pratchett quote, "all this" could be the cornfields and the wind and the rustling, or it could be all the stories, or something larger still. All this.