Christine Busta
trans. by Maria Fink
Two POEMS
Hoarfrost
Everything has turned to bloom,
frostbloom,
mistpoem.
With glassy twigs
the path chimes
into the white exile of the ravens.
From a Different Vineta
Others build on the mainland.
I build myself a city in the sea,
not a drowned, sunken Vineta,
a new one from sorrowcorals,
red and white, and pearly
tearshells. With gardens full of feathery
sea anemones, blooming sunless.
There I live among starfish skies
and learn from fin-winged angels
the language of the fish, of the golden-scaled,the silver-glimmering and the pied,
the rainbow-colored,of the godlessly gluttonous and the gentle,
performing sacrificial rites of life, of death,
dancelike and agile.
You can visit me anytime,
deep-sea diver. Humans have left so many
secrets to discover on the bottom
of the ocean; shattered ships, snapped
anchors, and treasures crusted in salt,
unsealed only by wonder, not by greed.
Or you could braid a net of memories
and cast it down at night.
I will send you my most trusted fish;
I taught him how to sing
in exchange for his language. You will understand him
and, as you listen, you will blow your breath
into his fluttering gills. In the morning
you will throw him back into the sea,
so he can deliver your message: an inaudible
mouth filled with golden sand from your beach.
Christine Busta (1915–1987) was an Austrian poet, translator, and librarian. She published eleven books of poetry and won numerous literary awards, including the Georg Trakl Prize in 1954, the Grand Austrian State Prize for Literature in 1969, and the Austrian Medal for Science and Art in 1980. She is also known for her children’s books Die Sternenmühle (1959) and Die Zauberin Frau Zappelzeh (1979). This is the first time her work appears in English translation.
Maria Fink is a PhD student in Germanic Studies at Indiana University Bloomington. She holds an MA in German and English literature and language teaching from the University of Salzburg and a Certificate in Literary Translation from Indiana University. Her translations from German appear in No Man’s Land and AGNI.