An Attempt At Luck Poem by Adeeb Kamal Ad-Deen

To Luck
I sent messages with a sharp tongue
And intensive reproach:
'You are the one who disordered my childhood
And crushed my youth
And confused my old age'.
Luck laughed, saying:
'All right
I will make of your death
An occasion full of joy and candles!'
When the unlucky man learnt to utter
His teeth came out and his words vanished!
When he learnt to walk, the roads vanished!
When he learnt to write
The word became no longer meaningful nor semi- meaningful!
When he learnt to fly, the sky disappeared!
On the ladder of luck
When I go a step up, the step collapses
And the ladder seems damned deep.
The loaf is no longer a dream
It has become a love poem
Only read in the presence of kings.
With a little ill-luck
I love you,
You have a lot of names and dates.
With much luck
You replied to my poems with stabs.
The difference between the loaf and the luck is
As weak as the spider's web.
The difference between the cloud
And childhood is nothing
For Al-Azeez's* wife stole their whiteness
And Joseph's brothers sold it for a few Dirhams.
The difference between us is nothing
Since we come from the same nothingness.
'You will be happy when you die.'
That was luck's will.
I accepted it and smiled.
Then I laughed a little
And I giggled like a crazy one at last.

* Al-Azeez was the ruler of Egypt at the time of the Pharaoh.