IF I MUST DIE” 

BY REFAAT ALAREER

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 tale


A Tribute of love and peace to his soul .

Who is Refaat Alareer ?

He is a Palestinian writer and poet,
professor, and activist from the Gaza Strip. Alareer was born in Gaza City in 1979 during the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip,he was killed with a number of his family members by an Israeli airstrike on his sister’s home in Gaza on December 6, 2023. 
Refaat was a professor of English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza for more than fifteen years, during which he taught thousands of students.

His poem “If I Must Die” has being translated into more than two hundred and fifty languages, and his verses are chanted at protests all around the world.
it is important for us to remember that he was targeted because of his words and his message and that it is our duty to carry it and amplify it. After all, he told us: “If I must die,/ You must live,/ to tell my story.” 

Shaima Refaat Alareer, the daughter of the Palestinian poet, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on her house west of Gaza City , four months after her father died,her husband and their two-month-old son also died in the strike.

music credit
sad piano one
Oliksii_Kalyna
pixabay

The Arabic language version of the poem in my Arabic channel
[ Ссылка ]

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