At the Hour of the Eclipse: Amira El-Zein's poetry of Gaza, loss and displacement

The hour of the eclipse is the hour of death, when darkness prevails, and the light goes out. In Gaza, it is a time of relentless strikes on homes, children burned alive, and lives shattered by grief and devastation.

This darkness lies at the heart of Amira El-Zein’s collection, where the eclipse becomes a symbol of displacement, rage, loss, and death.

At the Hour of the Eclipse is a poetry collection dedicated to the children of Gaza. It consists of ten long poems that give voice to the experience of those caught in this darkness, portraying a people marked by loss, grief, and uncertainty.

In Is the River a Spirit’s Tongue?, El-Zein writes:

"At the hour of the eclipse,

You came, death!

You are the obedient servant

who carries the gods’ commands

each time they raise their eyebrows.

You are the one who

erased pages from our book.

You are the thief who grabs

our children while asleep."

Amira El-Zein renders this suffering through verses that speak directly to the reader, evoking a profound sense of grief and anguish.

She captures the agony of Palestinians as "the forgotten ones," who rush toward death while fleeing "the emperor’s sword," portraying a people with nowhere left to go.

A dark night of displacement

El-Zein captures the suddenness of leaving home and fleeing from Israeli soldiers who have taken their houses and destroyed their olive trees.

Through her words, readers can sense the pain and terror of those forced into displacement, as well as the uncertainty and longing that come with leaving behind everything they know. In The Ancient Rain, We Drift, she writes:

"Are we walking?

Are we still?

Did we leave?

Are we packing?

And the children,

are they awake and ready?"

These questions reflect the confusion of a people forced to leave and escape death without knowing what awaits them.

Meanwhile, memory becomes a way of holding on to what has been lost: the homeland. In Is Echo the Memory Keeper? El-Zein presents memory through the remnants of a lost past:

"Is it our memory,

that smoke we see from afar,

rising above

the ancient chimneys?"

Throughout the poem, the displaced are portrayed as vulnerable and powerless, left at the mercy of forces beyond their control. They have become uncertain figures moving through a world in which even their homes have disappeared.

"Are we bottles

that wobble

on an unsteady table?

Are we shadows

leaping to the other side,

passing through doors

that have lost their houses?"

Displacement is never the choice of a people; it is the fear of death that forces them to leave behind their homes and memories.

For those who survive, that loss becomes a source of rage, grief, and a longing for what has been taken from them.

The rage of the people

"Language, if you depart,

we will express our thoughts

in elliptical forms,

that will cause the eclipse

of the sun."

In Dust, Amira El-Zein emphasises the power of language as a form of resistance.

Even when people are silenced, broken, and desperate, their words can still carry their pain and anger.

The reference to the "eclipse of the sun" suggests a world covered in darkness, where words give the oppressed a voice to challenge those who have caused their unbearable suffering.

The rage of those displaced becomes more direct and brutal in A Passage to Eternity:

"They slaughtered

the cattle

in the market.

They burned the elders

in their beds.

They recited

the verses of evil

day and night.

They trampled

the fresh corpses

with their boots."

These verses depict the rage of a people forced from their homes and confronted with death. The brutal images of slaughter, burning, and corpses convey the violence and agony of those who have lived through hell on earth.

The terror of death

The book portrays death as a monstrous presence haunting children at night, recalling the killing of children in Gaza, where Israeli strikes have hit schools and refugee camps, turning shelters into scenes of complete destruction.

In A Passage to Eternity, El-Zein addresses death directly, questioning its role in the loss of innocent children:

"Why did they throw the keys into the river?

Why did they trap the shadows of dusk?

Why did they paint the sun

with your paleness,

O Death?"

El-Zein also explores the idea of nothingness and uncertainty into which refugees are pushed, with the sea becoming an image of both terror and emptiness.

It reflects their feeling of being lost, with no clear destination or sense of safety. The refugees struggle to understand the violence surrounding them.

"Throats scream with the rage of the sea.

Is it dismay?

Is it the rattle of death?

Is it folly?

Is it betrayal?"

Amira El-Zein gives language to displacement, rage, and death, preserving the voices and memories of the people of Gaza.

Her verses speak a painful truth that is difficult to ignore. She depicts the tragic fate of millions of displaced people, forced to endure the constant threat of death.

At the Hour of the Eclipse is a poetry collection that reaches the heart, carrying the grief of a people through ten powerful poems.

Yet within this darkness, El-Zein’s poetry keeps their voices alive, refusing to let their memories and history be erased.

Joyce Bou Charaa is a Lebanese freelance writer and book editor, with a keen interest in writing about literature, culture, and history

Follow her on Instagram: @joyboucharaa