27/12/2023
The last poem from Gaza
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.
(Please translate and spread love. Long live Refaat Alareer, Gaza)
Editorial note: English text reprinted by permission of Yousef Aljamal. Translation copyright © 2023 by D. P. Snyder. Dr. Alareer’s edited volume, Gaza Writes Back, appeared on Yousef Khanfar’s “Palestine Bookshelf” in conjunction with the Summer 2021 Palestine Voices issue of WLT, which Khanfar guest-edited.
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.