Daniil Kharms

                                                                                                                           Sept. 1933

Dear Nikandr Andreevich [Tiuvelev],

     I got your letter and realized at once that it was from you.  At first I thought that it might not be from you, but as soon as I opened it, I realized at once that it was from you, otherwise I was about to think that it wasn't from you.  I'm happy that you got married a long time ago, because when a man gets married to someone he wanted to marry that means he's accomplished what he wanted.  Yesterday, I got your letter and thought at once that the letter was from you, but then thought, it seems that it's not from you but I opened it and see -- exactly, it's from you.  You did very well to write to me.  At first you didn't write, but then suddenly wrote, although even earlier, before you didn't write for a time, you had written too.  As soon as I got your letter, I decided at once that it was from you and then I was very happy that you're already married.  For once a person's conceived a desire to get married then he has to get married no matter what.  Therefore I'm very happy that you finally married someone you wanted to marry.  And you've done very well to write me.  I was delighted when I saw your letter, and even thought at once that it was from you.  True as I was opening it, the thought suddenly occurred to me that it wasn't from you but then I nevertheless decided that it was from you.  Thanks for writing.  I am grateful to you for this and very happy for you.  Perhaps you can't guess why I'm so happy for you but I'll tell you right off that I'm happy for you because you got married and precisely to the person you wanted to marry.  And this, you know, is very good -- to marry precisely the person you wanted to marry, because then you accomplish precisely what you wanted.  And that's precisely why I'm happy for you.  I'm also happy that you wrote me a letter.  I had decided from a distance that the letter was from you, but as soon as I took it in my hands, I thought: but what if it's not from you?  And then I think: come off it, of course it's from you.  I open the letter myself and at that moment think: from you or not from you?  Well, as soon as I opened it, I saw it was from you.  I was delighted and decided to write you a letter too.  There's a lot to say, but literally no time.  I wrote as much as I could manage in this letter, the rest I'll write in another, otherwise I don't have any time at all now.  At least it's good that you wrote me a letter.  Now I know that you've been married for a while.  I know from your previous letters that you were married and now I see again -- it's absolutely true, you got married.  And I'm very happy that you got married and wrote me a letter.  Just as soon as I saw the letter I decided that you got married again.  Well, I think, it's good that you got married again and wrote me a letter about it.  Write me now about your new wife and how it all turned out.  My regards to your new wife.