Vadim Khazin, or Вадим Хазін (Kyiv, Ukraine, April 2, 1937) is a Ukrainian translator and a geologist (PhD) who has lived in the United States since 1992. In 1967, he translated Jorge Icaza’s novel “El Chulla Romero y Flores” into Ukrainian as “Лихі пригоди Ромеро-і-Флореса” [literally, The Misadventures of Romero y Flores]. He knows various languages and has translated several works from English, Spanish, Italian and Polish to Ukrainian. He is a certified member of the American Association of Translators, where he initiated the creation of the English-Ukrainian certification of translators and until 2016 headed the relevant section of examiners. Now he heads the English-Russian certification section. He lives and works in New Jersey, USA.
Languages known
Khazin completed courses in English, Spanish, Japanese, Italian and French. He learned Polish on his own. He translates into both Ukrainian and Russian.
Background
In 1941, Khazin was evacuated with his mother to Orenburg (then Chkalov). He returned to Kyiv in 1945. In 1953, he entered the geological faculty of Shevchenko Kyiv State University. After graduation, he worked in the research department of the design institute “Teploelektroproekt” where he performed field geological research for the construction of power plants and power grids in various regions of the USSR. He completed courses in English, Spanish, Japanese, Italian and French. He learned Polish on his own.
Since 1961, he worked at the Department of Foundations and Foundations of the Kyiv Engineering and Construction Institute (now the Kyiv National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture) as an engineer, then as a senior researcher. After defending his candidate’s thesis in 1969, he became an associate professor, where he taught engineering geology and other disciplines. In 1992 he emigrated to the United States of America.
In the USA, working at the Center for Environmental Studies at the City University of New York, he organized joint American-Ukrainian scientific research and expeditions in this field. Worked as a translator. In 2013, a bilingual book of poetry “Days of Equinox” by amateur poets (mostly from New York) was published, translated by Vadym Khazin (translating from Russian to English, and sometimes from English to Russian). He is a certified member of the American Association of Translators, where he initiated the creation of the English-Ukrainian certification of translators and until 2016 headed the relevant section of examiners. Now he heads the English-Russian certification section. Lives and works in New Jersey, USA.
Selected translations
Starting from 1967, he translated literary works into Ukrainian, which were published most often in the magazine “Vsesvit”, as well as in other magazines of Kyiv and Moscow. Among the books he translated that were published are:
From Spanish
- El Chulla Romero y Flores (Jorge Icaza)
- Nefertiti, Reina de Egipto (Ruben Ardila)
- La situacion (Lisandro Otero)
- El cataclismo (Edmundo Desnoes)
- Enigma para un domingo (Ignacio Cárdenas Acuña)
- Cuentos cortos (Mario Benedetti)
- Cuentos cortos (Alvaro de la Iglesia)
From English
- Ten Little Indians (Agatha Christie)
- Galapagos (Kurt Vonnegut)
- The Songs of Distant Earth (Arthur C. Clark)
- Almost Midnight (Martin Caidin)
- Honorary White (E.R. Braithwaite)
From Italian
- Le Dieci Citta (Marcello Argilli)