Igor Guberman

Igor Mironovich Guberman (Russian: И́горь Миро́нович Губерма́н, IPA: [ˈiɡərʲ mʲɪˈronəvʲɪtɕ ɡʊbʲɪrˈman] , born July 7, 1936) is a Jewish Ukrainian writer and poet who lives in Israel since 1988. His poetry has received a great deal of acclaim primarily because of his signature aphoristic and satiric quatrains that he called gariki in Russian (singular: garik, which is also the diminutive form of the author's first name, Igor). These short poems (originally Guberman called them "Jewish [[Big-character poster|Dazibao]]") usually feature an ABAB rhyme scheme, employ various poetic meters, and cover a wide range of subjects including antisemitism, immigrant life, anti-religious sentiment, and the author's complicated relationship with Russia, Israel, and the respective cultures. Gariki are mostly humorous and often paradoxical, verging on philosophical.