Heavenly Father, we pray today for peace in our troubled world, thinking particularly of our WDP friends in Palestine and Israel.
“IF I MUST DIE”
BY REFAAT ALAREER
Refaat Alareer was an author and educator who taught English literature at Gaza’s Islamic University. He was killed in an air strike on December 6th 2023 along with his brother, his brother’s son, his sister and her three children.
As mentioned in today’s Countdown Video he wrote this poem shortly before his death.
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.
Translation by Sinan Antoon
