Now you depart, and though your way may lead
Through airless forests thick with hagar trees,
Through places steeped in heat, stifling and dry,
Where breath comes hard, and no fresh breeze can reach –
Yet may God place a shield of coolest air
Between your body and the assailant sun,
And in a random scorching flame of wind
That parches the painful throat, and sears the flesh
May God, in His compassion, let you find
The great-boughed tree that will protect and shade.
Now you depart, and though your way may lead…
