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.