![]() ![]() Intellectually, yes, Kafka never specified his breed of bug. Why? Mine is a squishy visceral reasoning rather than a hard-shelled intellectual reasoning. Yet by no means am I 100% married to “insect”. According to Wikipedia, Nabokov pictured Gregor as a winged beetle. “Vermin” brings to mind guinea pigs and hamsters. Translators must be fresh and innovative without also being asinine. “When Daphne Mimosa awoke one morning from weird sexy dreams she found herself metamorphosed on her futon into a big laurel tree.”ĪSIDE #2: “Behemoth beetle,” which– guaranteed– somebody’s tried, constitutes a ridiculous alliterative stretch. The event Kafka describes in “The Metamorphosis” is so peculiar, Gregor’s whole situation is so extra-ordinary (if I might steal from the musical “Pippin”) that it’s best for translators to eschew their Jerry Lewis wogga wogga instincts and go with some straight man adjectives.ĪSIDE # 1: Some people mix up their Ovids with their Kafkas. “Giant” is 2nd best and works well with “cockroach”. The onomatopoeic combo of ICK ECK is comparable to the click-click of huge bug feet. “Gigantic” is perfection– particularly when paired with “insect”. While I like the simplicity of “changed” or “turned”– “transformed” has a bit more clarity.ģ. “Uneasy” is better though and is true to the negation of Kafka’s unruhigen. Whereas “unsettling” doesn’t really unsettle my stomach the same way. “As Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”ġ. Let’s just get it out of the way right now and say that the Willa and Edwin Muir* translation rocks. Choices to describe the bug itself: A) cockroach B) beetle C) insect D) vermin. Choices to describe the size of the creepy-crawly: A) giant B) gigantic C) enormous D) monstrousĤ. Choices to describe Gregor’s– er– metamorphosis: A) changed B) transformed C) turned D) transmogrifiedģ. Isn’t it terrific that the German word for dreams is Traumen? Choices to describe dreams: A) unsettling B) unpleasant C) troubled D) uneasy.Ģ. “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from _dreams, he found himself_ into a(n) _ _.”ġ. Let’s narrow down our choices to the four stickiest words in his opener. Despite infinite ways to approach the famous first words in Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”– we should, as newbie translators, avoid getting too carried away.
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