Christine Busta

Hoarfrost

Translated from the GERMAN by Maria Fink

Everything has turned to bloom,

frostbloom,

mistpoem.

With glassy twigs

the path chimes

into the white exile of the ravens. 

Read Christine Busta’s “Hoarfrost” translated by Maria Fink in the print edition of The Arkansas International 7.

“Hoarfrost” by Christine Busta appears courtesy of Otto Müller Verlag (Salzburg).

Christine Busta (1915-1987) was an Austrian poet, translator, and librarian. Busta published eleven books of poetry during her lifetime 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. Busta is also known for her children’s books Die Sternenmühle (1959) and Die Zauberin Frau Zappelzeh (1979). This is the first time Christine Busta’s work appears in English translation. 

Maria Fink is a Ph.D. student in Germanic Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. She holds an M.A. in German and English literature and language teaching from the University of Salzburg, Austria and received the Certificate in Literary Translation from Indiana University in 2018. Her translations from German have appeared in No Man’s Land and are forthcoming in Agni.