Sofia Rusinova (София Русинова)

Sofia Rusinova (full Russian Cyrillic name София Владимировна Русинова; haigō Ореховая Соня (Orekhovaya Sonya, “Dormouse”), born July 14, 1965, Moscow, U.S.S.R.; died January 15, 2005, Moscow, Russian Federation), worked as a geochemist, administrator, and poet. Though she had been writing poetry since the 1980s, her haiku and senryu were virtually unpublished until after her death, when they were included in Mikail Baru’s Through the Silence: Anthology of Russian Haiku, Senryu and Three-liners and her monograph collection, Poems, Translations, Haiku, as well as in the leading Russian haikai journals and websites.

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Born in Moscow, U.S.S.R., Sofia Rusinova received a degree in geology and geochemistry from Moscow State University and went to work for the Central Research Geological Prospecting Institute (Центральный научно-исследовательский геологоразведочный институт; ЦНИГРИ), participating in research expeditions throughout the Soviet Union. She worked in her specialty for only a short period, however, and in the late 1980s, at the time of perestroika , she was obliged to change professions to make a living. For about six years she worked in a Moscow suburb in the Veles Trading Company, a distributor of food service equipment, then from 2001 as an inspector in the administrative department of the Commercial Oil Investment and Industrial Bank (Нефтепромбанк) in the Russian capital.

Rusinova was a talented linguist, having learned to read Latin and speak several living languages. She perfected her English by taking classes in Dublin, Ireland, to the point where she was able to translate the work of English authors.

Although she was active in poetry and haiku groups, notably on the Web, very few of her own haikai were published during her lifetime. These four were presented by Mikhail Baru on October 30, 2004, in his haiku anthology feature on the LiveJournal website:

Сирень отцвела,  А герань … Что ей сделается.	The lilac has faded, And the geranium … What will happen to it.1
Меж “любит”—“не любит”  Золотая середина  Цветка ромашки	The golden mean Between “loves me” and “loves me not” A daisy flower2
Девичий холодильник: остатки кьянти да крем от морщин.	Girl’s fridge all that’s left is Chianti and wrinkle cream.1
перед дождем плетут пауки сети для радуг	before the rain spiders weave webs for rainbows1

They were included in Baru’s 2006 book, Through the Silence: Anthology of Russian Haiku, Senryu and Three-liners.

However, only after her unexpected death in Moscow in 2005 did Rusinov’s friends and fellow haiku enthusiasts learn that she had been writing lyric poetry as early as the 1980s. They assembled collections of her haikai and arranged for publication in the major Russian haiku journals Ulitka, Haikumena, and Arion as well as the stihi.ru website.

Rusinova composed haiku on themes from nature, often finding interest in weather conditions:

в белую крапинку снегопада все	in a white speck of snowfall everything3
Клен пересчитывает свои листья. Каждый раз Их на один меньше.	The maple counts its leaves.  Each time  There’s one fewer.4
протерла очки— любуюсь туманом	I wipe my glasses and admire the fog5
выключаю свет — и все мотыльки по своим делам	I turn off the light— and all the moths go about their business3
за ночь разметало ветром вчерашний день	overnight the wind swept away yesterday3
первый снег—и первый снежок в спину	the first snow—and the first snowball in the back3

More often, though, she wrote about life at home:

Встала сегодня с левой ноги собственного кота	Got up today on the wrong side of my cat’s bed5
любимая книжка с пятнами любимой еды	a favorite book with stains of a favorite food3
оба трясемся — с балкона несу холодец	both shivering — fetching jelly from the balcony5
Корчу рожи самовару – знаю, что хороша!	I make faces at the samovar —  I know I’m beautiful!6

Even more often she puzzled over love and life:

Брожу по квартире, везде натыкаясь на твои поцелуи.	I wander around the apartment, everywhere bumping into  your kisses.7
настигла любовь обогнала	catching up love overtakes7
верю надеюсь до последнего лепестка ромашки	I believe, I hope to the last petal of a daisy8
когда мое сердце разобьется один осколок я подарю тебе	when my heart shatters I’ll give you one shard3

She sometimes waxed philospophical:

прошлое, какое ж ты дивное, какое не настоящее	the past, how wonderful you are,  how not the present3
Жизнь моя образ жизни и только	This life of mine is a way of living and only that8
Как тяжело—тяжело жить легко	How hard—hard it is to live easy8
на блюдечке моя душа наклоню—соскользнет	my soul on a saucer if I tip it, it’ll slide8

Rusinova had minimal contact with haiku poets or oganizations outside Russia. We have found only one poem of hers that was clearly related to a Western haiku, this poem of Peggy Heinrich’s that won a prize in the Ashiya International Haiku Festa Awards, 1998. Rusinova translated the haiku, combined it with a photograph by Aleksandr Shakhabalov and sent it for publication in Ulitka) 3 (2007):

дело к вечеру— от этих маленьких галек такие длинные тени.

late afternoon— from these small beach stones such long shadows

Likewise, we have found only one verse of Rusinova’s in a Western publication, this senryu chosen by editor David Cobb for Euro-haiku: A Bi-lingual Anthology (2007):

курю на балконе с тобой поругавшись полпачки назад

I smoke on the balcony having quarreled with you half a pack ago9

Domestic though she may have been, from the time of her work on geological expeditions, Rusinova was an enthusiastic traveler, and a number of her haiku reflect nostalgic visits to her hometown, weekend holidays at a dacha, and vacations taken farther afield—to Italy and especially to the resort town of Koktebel in southeastern Crimea.

сквозь туман пейзажи родного города прекрасн	through the fog the landscapes of my hometown become more beautiful3
закат на даче за забором распиливают тишину	sunset at the dacha behind the fence they’re sawing up silence3
Пляж под Римом. Детишки строят из песка Руины.	beach near Rome children building the ruins out of sand5

Sources for the Work of Sofia Rusinova

• Listki [section], Арион Журнал Поэзий (Arion Poetry Journal) 2014: 2: http://www.arion.ru/mcontent.php?year=2014&number=90&idx=1477&loc=0. 1 haiku.
• Baru, Mikhail, comp. Сквозь тишину: антология русских хайку, сенрю и трехстиший (Skvoz’ tishinu: antologiya russkikh khayku, senryu i trekhstishiy ; Through the Silence: Anthology of Russian Haiku, Senryu and Three-liners). Saint Petersburg: Krasnyy matros, 2006.
• Cobb, David, ed. Euro-haiku: A Bi-lingual Anthology. 1 haiku. Note: The poet’s name is transliterated as “Sophia Russinova” and both the Russian and English versions are garbled.
• Rusinova, Sofia. Стихи, переводы, хайку (Poems, Translations, Haiku). Moscow: 2006.

Four substantial collections of poems, most taken from Rusinova’s book, were published in Russia:

• 13 haiku and senryu in memoriam. “Sofia Rusinova (Orekhovaya Sonia).” Улитка / Ulitka 1 (Winter 2005–2006). This issue of Ulitka appears in both Russian and English versions; English translations by the Ulitka editors.
• 68 haiku and senryu in «Сад Камней» (“Rock Garden“), special feature in the journal. Хайкумена / Haikumena 3 (2007).33 haiku and senryu published in a 2007 article titled «из любимого: София Русинова (Ореховая Соня)». Orchid Thief Live Journal website: https://0rchid-thief.livejournal.com/441873.html.
• 22 haiku selected by the poet Valinia and published on the stihi.ru website in 2024: https://stihi.ru/2024/11/23/6247.

Compiled by Charles Trumbull

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Notes

1. English by M. Baru. [↩] [↩] [↩]
2. Retranslated by C. Trumbull. [↩]
3. “Rock Garden”; English by C. Trumbull. [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩]
4. Arion 4 (2014); English by C. Trumbull. [↩]
5. Ulitka 1; English by the Ulitka editors. [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩]
6. From a haiga, Ulitka 3 (2007). [↩]
7. Valiniya’s selections, Stikhi.ru website; English by C. Trumbull. [↩] [↩]
8. Orchid Thief LiveJournal website; English by C. Trumbull. [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩]
9. This senryu is attributed to “Sophia Russinova” in Euro-haiku, and unfortunately both the original and the translation are garbled. The Russian version here is from Orchid Thief Live Journal, and the translation is by C. Trumbull. [↩]