Ilya Selvinsky
Bronze

The little chubby boy bent
Back and bulged his paunch and went,
Spreading his legs with pudgy knees.
He stood and pee’d against the wall,
Trying hard to get
The long gold stream higher yet.

And the girl with an upturned mouth who wore
A moleskin fur coat stopped to explore:
Her round eyes followed with astounding joy
This dark-skinned little boy.

She knows nothing as yet: how, why
She crouches - to see better, yes,
And out of female captiousness,
Already - she shouts, repeating
«Ay — Ay — Ay — Ay — Ay — Ay
You are cheating. You are cheating.»

Translated by Merrill Sparks and Vladimir Markov