The Ides of March in the Ukraine

Lori Styler of the Barbara Hogenson agency asked Nazar Vashchyshyn, translator of The Ides of March in Ukrainian (Apriori Publishing House) about what drew him to Wilder’s novel.

Nazar Vashchyshyn: Why Wilder now and why The Ides? The first Ukrainian Ides edition should probably owe its introduction to my Ancient Greek and Latin Professor who advised me to read this book as the finest example of artistic adoption of Classical texts. Needless to say, I fell in love with this novel at the very first chapters. Vivid and fascinating story, memorable characters, all-time collision lines, transparent philosophical implications made me realize it’s a crime that The Ides of March had not spoken Ukrainian yet. Having a degree in Classical Studies, I could not but admit one more thing–actually, the one my Latin professor initially pointed at–brilliant philological work done behind the text. By saying “philological work,” I mean that Thornton Wilder’s Caesar, Cicero, or Catullus in quite a magnetic way, combine their fictional nature with the historical background. Once you read the story, it is literally unpleasant to imagine that existing Caesar might have differed from his Ides’ incarnation.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any record or mention related to Wilder’s titles translated before early 2000s. The first Ukrainian edition appears to be the translation of The Skin of Our Teeth, published in 2004. Since then, there were no other Thornton Wilder’s titles published till August, 2020 (The Ides of March).

I have some suggestions on why there have been such gaps in Ukrainian translation of world’s highest class literary names and pieces. Yet, I believe it’s a topic unrelated to the subject of this letter. Instead, I’ll give you a couple of interesting facts: it was in 2019 when the first complete Ukrainian translations of Milton’s Paradise Lost and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales were published. I leave the rest to your imagination.

As you probably noticed, the backstory of the Ukrainian Ides edition is more about contingency and spontaneity. There was no “big project” behind this translation. Yet, it managed to draw quite a bit of public attention here. The Ides got to many people’s wish lists immediately after Apriori announced it. I was happy and proud to receive words of sincere gratitude from my fellow translators and scholars.

Last but not least, the sales statistics also proves there is quite a solid demand for this edition. I dare not to give an interpretation to the public reaction. It may well be that, just as Mr. Tappan Wilder pointed out at his Ukrainian Edition Afterword, the book “has a special resonance in countries where memories of hard times endure, or governance questions remain concerning”. Yet, if I were to guess, I would rather emphasize on the scope of universal, eternal problems brought up in an outstanding artistic manner, which makes this novel a truly time-proof piece of literature.