[His anguish is plain upon his countenance as he makes his answer.]
She could not see that she need not share, for there is room enough in my heart for her as well as Menoetius' son, and my love for him diminishes not my love for her. How can one replace the other, when he is like the roots that hold steady a tree and she the branches that bear its sweet fruit?
[His words now whip raw from his tongue, the wound still so fresh and tender. Yet from this heightened pitch he sinks, his thoughts coming more slowly as he tries to shape them from the incoherent fog.]
But I too could not see - I saw not that what is natural among the Achaeans must be strange to other races of men. I meant not to hurt her, yet in my joy to receive worthy Patroclus and in the bliss she and I together shared, I was blinded.
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She could not see that she need not share, for there is room enough in my heart for her as well as Menoetius' son, and my love for him diminishes not my love for her. How can one replace the other, when he is like the roots that hold steady a tree and she the branches that bear its sweet fruit?
[His words now whip raw from his tongue, the wound still so fresh and tender. Yet from this heightened pitch he sinks, his thoughts coming more slowly as he tries to shape them from the incoherent fog.]
But I too could not see - I saw not that what is natural among the Achaeans must be strange to other races of men. I meant not to hurt her, yet in my joy to receive worthy Patroclus and in the bliss she and I together shared, I was blinded.