Ilya Selvinsky
Letter

Dear Mummy my darling
I. Love. You.
Gran — my darling
I will right more to

I no the alfa bet already
I’ll be six pretty soon
A doll is what there gonna get me
And I already got

Theres no more room
I kis all of you
This stick and ten donuts
A million times, I do

There is little boy here!
The biggest ears you ever saw
And there is that another boy —
    Never forgetting you, dear
        Kuka.

Translated by Vladimir Markov and Merrill Sparks