Dina Televitskaya was born in Gorky, (now Nizhniy Novgorod), Russia, in 1951. She began to write poetry when she was 6 years old and has been writing prose from the age of 11. At 15, she started to work as a teacher in children's summer camps.

Having graduated from the philological faculty of the Pedagogical University, she taught Russian language and literature and later developed a serious interest in journalism. Her poems have been published in practically all of Russia 's children's magazines.

In 1989, her first children's book was published. It was a book of poetry, named "The Younger Sister." Fifteen of her books have been published in different publishing houses in Russia : poems, fairy-tales, fantasy stories and novels.

Since 1991, she has been teaching at the 441 School of St. Petersburg . She teaches 8- to 16-year-old children to write poetry and prose. Her optional course is called "Literary creativity." She is the leader of a youth literary studio and chief editor of the school newspaper.

The poems she shares here were written originally in rhyme in the Russian language. Her translations into English are not rhymed.