Thank you very much. I fell asleep for a minute and I had a horrible dream they were tearing my home down. Scooping up my trees and plants without allowing me to at least save my plants. I can not even imagine what the Palestinians are living through.
Refaat Alareer (1979–2023) was a professor of world literature and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza and the editor of Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine (2013). He was killed by an IDF airstrike on December 6, 2023, along with his brother, nephew, his sister, and three of her children.
Sean, thank you for sharing this powerful, timely, and brilliant poem! It is certainly relevant today, as it has always been. Thank you also for your very insightful, passionate comments. They are greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much. I fell asleep for a minute and I had a horrible dream they were tearing my home down. Scooping up my trees and plants without allowing me to at least save my plants. I can not even imagine what the Palestinians are living through.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/c31h4PnBncY?feature=share
God bless them! This has got to end! Maybe they’re the lever that will bring the whole shit show tumbling down!
Let's hope so.
Thanks for this wonderful and inspiring poem.
Thank you for your powerful writing.
Yes, Diana - isn't this such a magnificent, powerful, truthful poem?
If I Must Die
If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze —
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself —
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above,
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love.
If I must die
let it bring hope,
let it be a story.
WARNED TRACKED TARGETED~
Refaat Alareer (1979–2023) was a professor of world literature and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza and the editor of Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine (2013). He was killed by an IDF airstrike on December 6, 2023, along with his brother, nephew, his sister, and three of her children.
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/poetry/bilingual-poem-gaza-refaat-alareer
That’s a beautiful, moving poem Sean. Thanks very much for sharing it.
“…Will raise for you a living monument of love,
And joy, and laughter,
And black hands and white hands clasped as one,
And a song that reaches the sky…”
Thanks for sharing this. It's been a while since I read it.
You're welcome. It always hits home.
ARE THERE OTHER RECORDED VERSIONS Of
IF I MUST DIE ❓
Brian Cox reads If I Must Die, by beloved Palestinian poet, teacher and martyr Refaat Alareer.
Refaat was killed on December 7th by an Israeli airstrike.
This was the last poem he published.
https://x.com/PalFest/status/1734707506977337538
Sean, thank you for sharing this powerful, timely, and brilliant poem! It is certainly relevant today, as it has always been. Thank you also for your very insightful, passionate comments. They are greatly appreciated.
You may also like this other blast from the past: James Baldwin, Open Letter to the Born Again (1979); https://seangriobhtha.substack.com/p/open-letter-to-the-born-again
I really loved it.
I can't help but offer a true favorite of mine - "If We Must Die" by Claude McKay!
👍Thanks, Sean!