"
And Ailell answered her in the same way, and he said: "I have good cause
for my hurt; the music of my own harp does not please me; there is no
sort of food is pleasant to me, and so I am wasted away." Then Etain
said: "Tell me what is it ails you, for I am a woman that is wise. Tell
me is there anything that would cure you, the way I may help you to it?"
And Ailell answered her: "O kind, beautiful woman, it is not good to
tell a secret to a woman, but sometimes it may be known through the
eyes." And Etain said: "Though it is bad to tell a secret, yet it ought
to be told now, or how can help be given to you?" And Ailell answered:
"My blessing on you, fair-haired Etain. It is not fit I am to be spoken
with; my wits have been no good help to me; my body is a rebel to me.
All Ireland knows, O king's wife, there is sickness in my head and in my
body." And Etain said: "If there is a woman of the fair-faced women of
Ireland tormenting you this way, she must come to you here if it
pleases you; and it is I myself will woo her for you," she said.
Then Ailell said to her: "Woman, it would be easy for you yourself to
put my sickness from me. And my desire," he said, "is a desire that is
as long as a year; but it is love given to an echo, the spending of
grief on a wave, a lonely fight with a shadow, that is what my love and
my desire have been to me."
And it is then Etain knew what was the sickness that was on him, and it
was a heavy trouble to her.
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