DUBAI: Actor Brian Cox has recited a poem by Palestinian academic Refaat Alareer, who was killed on Dec. 7 in Gaza by an Israeli airstrike, for the Palestine Festival of Literature in London.
Alareer, who was a professor of English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, first published “If I Must Die” in 2011. He reposted it on Nov. 1 on X, where he has more than 111,000 followers, and pinned it to his profile.
The Palestine Festival of Literature in London shared a video on Wednesday of the Scottish actor reading the moving verse.
Cox recited:
“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.”
