In Arabic, “Bury me, my Love” is an expression that means “Take care”, “Don’t even think about dying before I do”. You might say it to a loved one, before going separate ways. They are the last words Dana’s mother told her to wish her good luck, as the young Syrian girl left her country. It was on September the 19th, 2015, when Dana had decided she would reach Germany at any cost.
Bury me, my Love does not tell the story of Dana’s travels. Thanks to Lucie Soullier, a journalist at lemonde. fr, and to her article, “Le Voyage d’une migrante Syrienne à travers son fil WhatsApp” (“The Journey of a Syrian Migrant, as Told by her WhatsApp Messages”), we know Dana’s story. But even though both women are part of our editorial team, Bury me, my Love isn’t biographical.
Our two main characters, Nour and Majd, are fictional. They do not exist, or rather, they exist collectively. They are a multitude of men, women and children: Dana, her mother, her brother-in-law… as well as thousands of others who flee their country – or watch their relatives flee – all in hopes of finding a better life in Europe.
This story is about those who achieve that goal. It is about those who don’t. It is about those who die trying. It is about the world around us. Something which we hope will lead you to keep pondering on after it is over.