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
(Crossposted at Refaat Alareer’s blog In Gaza, My Gaza!)
Beautiful poem Refaat.
I found another one also written by a young man.
“If We Must Die
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! ”
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if-we-must-die/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KBzaT4ZaLA&feature=related
I loved the last 3 lines. good job. will try to dig deeper into the poem and find out some more meanings later on.
thanks for sharing it with us Mr. Refaat :)
Note that in order to inspire ethnic Ashkenazim to die for Zionism, Zionist ideologues created a culture of death: http://books.google.com/books?id=xBZ7_niqwAkC&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=poem+about+trumpeldor&source=bl&ots=AO4iPyQCb4&sig=qJ-XgTh9fxtcv6QUcl8sDttastY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9qUUT5HrE4batwf2nIyKAg&sqi=2&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=poem%20about%20trumpeldor&f=false
Note that as a Czarist officer Trumpeldor was thoroughly indoctrinated in Czarist anti-Muslim expansionist imperialist ideology.
This is madness. young men (and women) should not be singing songs of death.
“the long tail with a tale of hope.”, The author understands a situation without hope. It’s about not giving up, not withstanding. You might get lucky or not, but at least you get a “tale”. It appears Whizdom has never experienced a situation without hope and survived, if not songs of death, then what?
Hej!