The Poet Rilke Sends Some Zen Telegrams

By Martin Wasserman

Since Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is the most frequently translated poet of the twentieth century, Professor Wasserman decided to adopt a new “conceptual” approach in order to have an even greater appreciation of the author’s work. He pictured Rilke, who was a strong admirer of Buddhism, walking into a telegraph office and sending Zen-like poems to his many friends, based upon segments from his personal writings. This imagined experience was able to show in a markedly different way both the wisdom and the depth of Rilke’s beliefs that are found in most of his poetic offerings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669817437

Martin Wasserman

Martin Wasserman, the creator of this book, is a Professor Emeritus at SUNY Adirondack, a college in the State University of New York system where he taught for thirty-six years. During his career he published over thirty journal articles and three books. One of those works, Kafka Kaleidoscope, was chosen as a “Best Book” by the Small Press Review in 1999. Professor Wasserman’s two most recent works are an original poetry piece entitled Kafka, Rilke, Nadel: Three German Writers Pulling Me Toward the East and a poetry translation called What There Is, As It Is: The Epigrammatic Poems of Ludwig Feuerbach.

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