The passing of 'Rita'... Mahmoud Darwish's muse leaves our world in Berlin, leaving behind a literary will for the world

Death claimed Tamar Ben Ami, at the age of 79, in the German capital, Berlin. She was the woman known in the Arab and Palestinian consciousness as 'Rita', the first muse of the late poet Mahmoud Darwish. Her passing came after a long struggle with illness, thus closing a chapter of stories where love intertwined with politics and poetry with bitter reality.

In her final years, the deceased had been managing artistic and cultural projects, moving between the cities of Berlin and Haifa. Her name became forever associated with one of the most famous resistance love poems in modern Palestinian literature, in which Darwish wrote 'Between Rita and my eyes, a rifle,' expressing the heart's struggle with identity and homeland in the early stages of his poetic career.

The story's roots go back to 1963 in Haifa, when the young Mahmoud Darwish met the Jewish girl Tamar Ben Ami, who was then twenty-two years old. In previous interviews, the deceased described that meeting as an 'electric current' that ignited love at first sight, when Darwish was reciting his poems in an artistic performance in which she participated with a folk dance troupe.

Ben Ami left a remarkable cultural will, as she called in her last public appearance for the translation of Darwish's poem 'Think of Others' into all world languages. She considered this poem to represent a universal human statement and an identity card for Darwish as a cosmic poet, emphasizing the necessity of teaching it in schools as a subject for education and social values.

In a cultural symposium hosted by the town of Iksal in 2018, 'Rita' passionately recalled her memories with the poet of Palestine, explaining that Darwish was for her 'the anchor of life' and her constant source of inspiration. Although the relationship did not culminate in marriage due to political circumstances and her later enlistment in the army, she continued to hold a special place for him in her memory.

The plastic artist Abd Abdi, a close friend of the deceased, revealed unknown aspects of her life, noting that she asked for his help in the late nineties to arrange a meeting with Darwish in France. She indeed managed to fulfill her wish and meet him there in 1998, in an attempt to rekindle the threads of an old memory that time had not erased.

Abdi mourned his friend with touching words, confirming that the love story between Darwish and Tamar was known only in the very narrow circles of the poet's close associates. He explained that the deceased was active in the social and cultural fields, and maintained her ties with the Palestinian cultural scene until her last days.

For his part, critic Marzouq Al-Halabi offered a different reading of the preoccupation with 'Rita's' passing, considering that Darwish the poet had long since moved beyond that early stage of his life. Al-Halabi pointed out that Darwish sometimes felt pain because the public and critics always tried to bring him back to his beginnings and his first poems like 'Rita' and 'I yearn for my mother's bread.'

Al-Halabi added that in his later years, especially in his famous evening in Haifa in 2007, Darwish tried to free himself from the dominance of old poems to present his mature intellectual and poetic output. Nevertheless, the public remains attached to those symbols that shaped their initial awareness of the cause and love under the shadows of occupation.

The poem 'Rita and the Rifle' is a unique literary model that embodied the impossibility of love in the midst of national conflict, where the rifle stands as a barrier between the honey-colored eyes and the poet. This poem was transformed into a lyrical icon by the voice of the artist Marcel Khalife, which contributed to immortalizing 'Rita's' name in collective memory.

The late Tamar Ben Ami had stated to the media that reading Darwish's old letters was a 'painful and harsh' process, especially after both parties realized they were stuck in a complex reality. She believed that Darwish succeeded in remaining in the public memory of humanity as a candle illuminating the darkness despite all setbacks.

'Rita's' life in her final years was divided between artistic work and humanitarian messages, as she traveled the world carrying a message calling for peace and understanding of others, drawing from her personal experience with the poet who taught her 'the world of words and creativity' as she always described it.

The passing of Tamar Ben Ami reopens the door for discussion about Mahmoud Darwish's personal biography and its impact on his poetry, and how he managed to transform a personal love experience into a major human cause that transcends borders and races, making 'Rita' a literary symbol rather than a real person.

With 'Rita's' death in Berlin, a real chapter of Darwish's inspiration closes, but the poem will remain alive, telling the story of the 'honey-colored eyes' that were besieged by rifles, and her will to translate 'Think of Others' will remain a final call from a woman who lived in the heart of Palestinian poetry.

Between Rita and my eyes, a rifle... And whoever knows Rita bows down and prays to a god in the honey-colored eyes.