Sol 5.6

  1. Time has played havoc with the beauty of Muhammad’s face,

    as the east wind played with the campsite until it lay desolate.

  2. He had once been famed for beauty; yet ceaselessly

    the twin vicissitudes of time visited him, till he grew unrecognizable.

  3. I remember him camphor-anointed and safflower-dyed;

    then he appeared sandalwood-scented and saffron-stained.

  4. As though his two temple-locks, against his cheeks,

    were two dung beetles returning again and again to yellow dung.

Sol 5.6