Rückert, Friedrich

Friedrich Rückert, German poet and translator, 1788-1866

Friedrich Rückert was a German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages. Rückert was master of thirty languages and made his mark chiefly as a translator of Oriental poetry and as a writer of poems conceived in the spirit of Oriental masters. He issued a collection of poems, "Östliche Rosen" ("Eastern Roses"), in 1822. Much attention was attracted by a translation of the "Maqamat" of Al-Hariri of Basra in 1826 and "Hamasa, oder die ältesten arabischen Volkslieder" ("Hamasa, or the Oldest Arabian Folk Songs") in 1846. His cycles "Die Weisheit des Brahmanen" ("The Wisdom of the Brahmins") and "Liebesfrühling" ("Spring of Love") are the best known of all Rückert's productions.