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Kafka, Camus, and the Importance of Translation

Source

First published in 1915, Franz Kafka's novella Metamorphosis tells the story of Gregor Samsa, who wakes to find himself transformed into a large insect. Though the cause of the transformation is never revealed, the novella focuses on Samsa's struggle to adjust to his new identity.

Translations:

#1:Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug.

The diction of this translation is simple and includes the words "uneasy", which has a negative connotation, and "giant", which when thinking about a bug means only large to a certain extent. The syntax used in this translation is very short and direct. In regards to imagery, the only visual descriptor is "giant bug." This translation's structure is very direct and the style is concise, with a small amount of filler and descriptor words.

#2:When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug.

The diction of this translation is less simple than the last one, because the word "woke" from the last one is "awoke" in this one and instead of "uneasy dreams" it is "troubled dreams", and instead of "giant bug" it is "enormous bug". The syntax in this translation is longer than the first one. The detail of the bug has a larger connotation to it in this translation compared to the last one. The structure is also less direct with it's style being less concise, with filler and descriptor words, such as "he found he had been" which was just "to find himself" in the first one.

#3:As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

The diction of this translation is very similar to the first one, with the word "uneasy" still describing the dreams, however, the word "gigantic", a more substantial word to describe size, is used in this one rather than "giant". The syntax in this is relatively long, compared to the first translation, but about the same size as the second translation. The imagery of the size of the bug in this translation is similar to the second translation because "enormous" and "gigantic" are both a little more substantial than "giant". The structure is a little incoherent because of the placement of the words "in his bed" because they don't seem like they belong where they are, at least not without commas. The style in this translation is descriptive.

#4:One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin.

The diction in this translation is very different from the other translations. It describes the dreams as "agitated" and the bug is described as "monstrous" and even referred to as "vermin", not a bug. The words hold more of a serious connotation in this translation. The syntax is very long with a lot of pauses with commas. The imagery for the bug in this translation is "monstrous vermin" which is much more negative than the other translations and less about size than the other ones. The structure is choppy, with a lot of commas interrupting the sentence throughout. The style in this translation is less concise and clear than any of the other ones.

How does the word choice, syntax, punctuation, and imagery shift in each affect meaning? Is one more effective than another? Why? What does this exercise bring up about the difficulty of reading translated texts? How do different translations affect the tone of the sentence?

Even the most minute differences in word choice, syntax, punctuation, imagery, etc. in each of these translations affects meaning. Words, even words similar to each other, can have very different meaning when placed in certain sentences and can have very different connotations when placed in certain sentences. Syntax can affect an interpretation of a sentence because shorter sentences come off as clearer or more abrupt, and longer sentences can be unclear if not stated well. Punctuation affects the meaning of a sentence because if there are a lot of commas it can make the sentence feel interrupted and lengthy sometimes and if there is a colon it can make the sentence feel more clear sometimes. Imagery can affect the meaning of a sentence because it directly affects what the reader is picturing in their head and different ways of using imagery will result in different types of images in peoples imaginations. I do not believe that there is one way to use any of these devices that is more effective than another because it depends entirely on the sentence and the author's purpose.

This exercise brings up the fact that translated texts often do get "lost", because minute differences in the translation can result in huge differences in the meaning of it, and ultimately a reader's interpretation. For example, the first translation above has an entirely different meaning than the fourth translation. The first one I take as a very simple descriptor of what happened to Samsa and the fourth I take as a more dramatic and extreme version of what happened to Samsa, and it is because of the minute differences in word choice, syntax, punctuation, imagery, etc. Different translations affect the tone of sentences because, in the first translation the tone was very robotic and straightforward and in the fourth one it was more dramatic and subjective.