Alessandro Pacini speaks If I Must Die by Refaat Alareer in Folignate, a dialect in Umbria, Italy.

Alessandro Pacini speaks If I Must Die by Refaat Alareer in Folignate, a dialect spoken in Umbria, Italy.
From 'If I must die, you must live - marking one year' which included over fifty live readings of Refaat Alareer's poem in diverse languages.
This multilingual online event of remembrance and hope hosted by Maurizio Montipò Spagnoli and me on 6 December 2024 marked one year since Ga2a's most loved poet, storyteller and teacher Refaat Alareer was brutally assassinated. We gathered from all over the world to honour his legacy and message:

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.
🪁You're invited to watch the whole beautiful multilingual recording here: https://youtu.be/iG9e1JT10WM?si=h6SxrzWimnzoOD0E
Could you also contribute your voice to this ever expanding If I Must Die - Refaat Alareer playlist in many Languages and Voices? https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj-mcWeMmSZx5E2Tw6c7SA4Kdk1421SJc&si=prdFWVr9uRvyg_0p
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Your acceptance of this invitation to recite his extraordinary poem If I Must Die in diverse languages and voices makes this playlist a growing testament to the power of the spoken word in calling for change.
You can add your voice in any language or dialect you speak, including English, to those who have already contributed:

Sef Townsend - Yiddish

Despina Varda Avraamides - Greek and English

Letty Segura - Spanish

Georgia from Cyprus' 12-year-old daughter - English

Ruth Kirkpatrick - Scots

Mechthild Lier - German

Mwana Ummy Ally and Tina Mtui - English and Kiswahili

Rebeca Robles - Spanish and English

Evi Karydi and daughter Neleia- English and Greek together

Fiona Collins - Welsh

Jackie Ross - Doric

Şüheda Şahin - Turkish

Tammy Heathfield - French

Zahra Rezaei Afsah - Farsi

Zahra Afsah and Mehdi Farhadian - Farsi

Sara (9) - Italian

Torgrim Mellum Stene - Norwegian

Lightness Isojick - Iraqw

Lightness Isojick and her eleven-year-old daughter Rosemary - English and Iraqw

Farah Saeed - Urdu

Fahima Begum - Bengali

Zahid - Baluchi

Sejuti - Portuguese

Lisa Schneidau - English

Nicholas Pawlowski - English

Simona Stambazzi - Italian

Sowmya Rajan Srinivasan - Tamil

Shilpa Story Rack - Hindi

Poonam S Joshy - Hindi

Rukhsana Rukhsana Parveen Haque - Assamese

Tracy Chipman - English

Anagha Prasad - Kannada

Sree Karuna - Telugu

Min Wild - Afrikaans

Mariela Mondaca - Spanish

Deepa Ahuja Ramani - Sindhi

Lavanya Prasad - dialect of Tamil (sung)

Neena Girish - Malayalam

Dayang Kasimeh - Bahasa Melayu

Dayang Kasimeh - English

Kenza Omayr - Arabic

Larisa Chernova - Ukrainian

10-year-old learners of English in Greece - English

Anuschka De Coster - Dutch

Vera Cabrera Duarte - Portuguese

Ina Dafinescu - Romanian

Xie Rong - English

Shikha Gurung - Nepali

Polina Tšerkassova - Estonian

Xie Rong - Mandarin Chinese

Polina Tserkassova - Russian

Gina Ben David - Hebrew

Riikke Palonen - Finnish

Krysztof Daletski - Esperanto (sung)

Vivika and Eirini - English and Greek

Xie Rong - English and Mandarin Chinese and All of Us in Many Languages and Voices

Kimwei McCarthy, Ami Lee and Emily Grossman - English

Heloisa Chen - Mandarin Chinese

Gerhard Erasmus - Afrikaans/ Sondra and Ivory - Taiwanese (also called Min Nan Yu or Hokkien)/ Emily and Marco - Mandarin Chinese

James Turner - English

Kimwei McCarthy - English (sung)

John Liddy - Irish

Fernanda Felix Binati - Spanish

Arnold Mühren - Dutch

Brinda Runghsawmee - Mauritian Creole

Kimwei McCarthy with Anita Clarinet, Lisa Rowe and Christopher Dance - English (sung)

Sylwia Zabor Żakowska - Polish

John Liddy - Spanish

Fernanda Felix Binati - Portuguese

Shereen Dajani - Arabic

Sarah Hobbs - English

Ibrahim Yaghi - Arabic

Ibrahim Yaghi - English

Enedina Sanna - Sardu/Sardinian

Ahmed Gamieh - Somali

Bengt Pohjanen - Swedish

Jana, Marija V., Lena, Marija T., Nadja, Sava, Andjela, Tijana and Ana
(Irena Spasojevic's teenage students) - Serbian

Emelihter Kihleng in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia - Pohnpeian

Azam Abidov - Uzbek

Heather Souter - Southern Michif language of the Métis Nation of Canada

Brandy Nālani McDougall and Halena Kapuni Reynolds - ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi / Hawaiian

Bernard Kondi - Bola (Papua New Guinea); Maxwellyn Mara - Bebeli (Papua New Guinea); Julie Mota Kondi - Korafe/Mokorua (Papua New Guinea)

Arrate Uranga Mendizabal - Euskera (Euskadi/Basque country)

Alessandro Pacini - Folignate (Umbria, Italy)

Please send a video recording of you reading the poem in any language or dialect you speak - email davidheathfield@hotmail.co.uk
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#IfIMustDie

Видео Alessandro Pacini speaks If I Must Die by Refaat Alareer in Folignate, a dialect in Umbria, Italy. канала David Heathfield