Igor Guberman

Igor Guberman - "Игорь Миронович Губерман" (b. 1936) is a Russian-born Jewish writer and poet. His poetry has received a great deal of acclaim primarily because of his signature aphoristic and satiric quatrains, called "gariki" in Russian (singular: "garik," which is also the diminutive form of the author's first name, Igor). ( [http://www.lib.ru/GUBERMAN/gariki.txt Gariki] ). These short poems always feature an a-b-a-b rhyme scheme, employ various poetic meters, and cover a wide range of subjects including antisemitism, immigrant life, and the author's love-hate relationship with Russia. The following is a typical example:

Россия веками рыдает
О детях любимых своих;
Она самых лучших съедает
и плачет печалясь о них.

English Translation (Translated by Michael Latash)

Dear Russia has cried many hours,
It is for her children she cries;
Her brightest and best she devours,
Then weeps as she mourns their demise.

Biography

Igor Guberman was born in Moscow on July 7, 1936. After high school, he entered the Moscow Institute of Transportation Engineering where, in contrast to a number of more prestigious Russian universities, there was not a maximum quota for Jews. In 1958, he graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He worked as an electrical engineer for several years and wrote on the side in his spare time. Toward the end of the 1950s, he was introduced to Alexander Ginzburg, who published "Syntax", one of the first samizdat periodicals, as well as to other underground philosophers, writers, and artists.

At first, Guberman wrote popular science books, but he gradually became more and more active as a dissident poet. Guberman published his underground work under the pseudonyms "I. Mironov" and "Abram Khayyam", connecting the names of the famous Persian poet Omar Khayyám and the Jewish first name Abram. In 1979, Guberman was arrested and sentenced to five years in the Labor Camps. He based his book, "Walks Around the Barracks" (written in 1980, published in 1988) on the diaries he kept during his time in the Gulag.

In 1984, the poet returned from Siberia. For a long time, he could get neither a job nor a residence permit (Propiska) to live in Moscow. In 1987, Guberman emigrated from the USSR, and since 1988 he has been living in Jerusalem. He returns to Russia quite frequently to attend poetry readings. Books by Guberman have sold hundreds of thousands of copies in Russia and in countries with Russian immigrant communities, with whom they are always popular.

External links

* [http://www.lib.ru/GUBERMAN/ Igor Guberman. Poems]

Persondata
NAME=Guberman, Igor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Mironov, I. (pseudonym); Khayyam, Abram (pseudonym)
SHORT DESCRIPTION=writer
DATE OF BIRTH= 7 July, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH=Moscow, Russia
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=