The renowed poet and literature professor Refaat Alareer was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City alongside several family members in December 2023. He was just forty-four years old but had already established a worldwide reputation that was further enhanced when, in the wake of his death, the poem that gives this book its title became a global symbol of dignified resistance.

Alarmed wrote extensively about a range of topics: teaching Shakespeare in Gaza and the way Shylock should be appreciated by his young students; the horrors of living under repeated Israeli assaults; and the generosity of Palestinians to each other, fighting, in the face of it all, yo ve the one paying at the supermarket checkout.

Alongside his poetry, such pieces have been curated here by one of Alareer's closest friends and collaborators. The selection provides a fitting testament to a remarkable writer, educator, and activist, whose voice will continue to assert the power of learning and humanist in the face of barbarian.