This paper examines selective aspects of the activity of Vassyl Myssyk (1907 - 1983) as a translator who played a significant role in the development of cultural and educational activities in Ukraine. His creativity is viewed through the prism of sociology of translation, which imposes the possibility to see "beyond the text", to redress geopolitical and social contexts of Myssyk"s working conditions, to reconstruct the consequences of a sharpened "sociological eye" on Myssyk as an agent involved in the translation process of 20th c. Ukraine. It should therefore be clarified that the translator Vassyl Myssyk is considered the "exile translator". For his ideological beliefs he was kept imprisoned for 5 years. A translator of world"s paramount creative writings, Myssyk stands out against a background of the creativity of other activist translators in Ukraine - mainly due to his biography. His early translation career started in 1932 and lasted by the year 1934. In 1932 the first collection of translated verses entitled Robert Burns "Pisni ta Poemy"/ Robert Burns "Songs and Poems" was published. In 1934 an excerpt of the novel by John Roderigo Dos Passos "1919" ("Nineteen Nineteen") was published in Chervonyi Shliakh magazine with the indication to &be continued. The same year, however, Myssyk was arrested and spent five years of exile in Solovky. In 1949 he was set free and in the year 1958 he was rehabilitated. It should be taken into consideration that his translations were monitored and shad&owed ever since. Admittedly, his creativity - original writings and translation-related activity - was under peer supervision and censorship of power institutions. Certain success in his after exile translations may be constituted. His collections of& translations enlist R. Burns" poetry (1959); O"Henry novel "Cabbages and Kings" (1962, republished in 1980); W. Shakespeare"s drama "Timon of Athens" (1964); J. Keats" poems (1968), and others. The following genres are presented by V. Myssyk in tran&slation: poetry (J. Milton, R. Burns, G. G. Byron, P. B. Shelley, J. Keats, H. Longfellow, W. Whitman, etc.), fable (J. Gay), drama (W. Shakespeare), and prose (О. Henry, J. Dos Passos). Listed above are the translations done from English. Numerous t&ranslations are done from the Persian language, namely the well-known writings by Abdurakhman Dzham, Muslikhadyn Saadi, Omar Khayam, Hafiz, Abul-Kasym Fibrdous, and others. Apart from his translations, Myssyk left enormous heritage of his original wo&rks, both poetic and prosaic. The crucial point here is that some translations of Myssyk never occurred to be published during his lifetime. For example, he translated a drama "The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet" by Shakespeare in 1932, which turned to &be published only in 1988 (posthumously). Taking into consideration these facts, it should be cleared that Myssyk never rose in rebellion against such injustice. Instead, he found his way to catharsis via poetry writing and translating. Myssyk posses&ses unique values and understanding of the responsibility of a translator at different - early, interim and mature - stages of his biography. It becomes obvious that Myssyk was experimenting with genres and strategies. Apart from further masterly tra&nslations, this activity resulted in the multiple versions of the same source text, thus, constituting the potential for gradual re-contextualization and serving favourable corpus for researching the translator"s style and taste. Thus, the interim st&age allows regarding V. Myssyk"s translations as a stage of improvement and self-editing. At his mature stage, Myssyk concentrated on the all-embracing presentation of the original author (his biography, translations, and commentaries). The prioritie&s in the translator"s conception were: translating significant classical works; following the source text concerning the clarity of the motif and innovative poetic forms; distinguishing between elevated and low style, working directly with the source&
