An Attempt at Luck

 

 Adeeb Kamal Ad-Deen

 

 

 

   1

  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!"

 

  2

   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!

 

  3

   On the ladder of luck

   When I go a step up, the step collapses

   And the ladder seems damned deep.

 

  4

   The loaf is no longer a dream

   It has become a love poem

   Only read in  the presence of kings.

 

  5

   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.

 

 

  6

   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.

 

 

  7

   "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.

 

 

( T M)

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