The Importance of Translation
Okay so today we are going to be looking at how different translations of a particular line of text from, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. The main reason that we are going to be doing this is to show how through the different translations the meaning or the mood changes in respect to the wording. The four translations that will be looked at in this post are as follows:
#1: "Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug."
#2: "When Gregory Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug."
#3: "As Gregory Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."
#4: "One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin."
With these translations you can notice right off the bat that each one, upon reading them, has a different feel in the words that they use.
Starting with the first translation #1:
-Diction: When looking at the word choice of the section, two words that stand our are, uneasy and bug. When looking at uneasy, the word follows it natural connotative meaning of the lack of security and the feeling that something is not right. However the use of bug follows a more denotative approach, where the dictionary says that a bug is, "A small insect", but in the context of the quote the bug seems to be more reproachable than a harmless ladybug or mite for that matter.
-Syntax: The syntax in this section seems to be a bit jarring in the fact that there is no use of punctuation in the sentence. There seems to be a needed comma between morning and to. Without the comma it seems to be a bit rushed and posses some kind of discontinuity between the two actions and ideas in the quote.
-Imagery/Details: When we think of a giant bug, we usually think about something very scary, one of our natural instincts when we think of something larger than life, it so make it reproachable. However in this scene and this translation I did not think this about the giant bug, I did not think it was something scary like a tarantula or a scorpion. Rather I though of him more as a cute giant ladybug, or like a Caterpillar. This made this translation seem a bit less scare and a bit more calm in my mind.
-Structure: The structure of this translation seems to be very straight forward. The brevity of the wording and the lack of any real transition words in the quote seem to play on this idea. Because the wording seems to want to just get straight to the point and not waste any time with details, the translation wants us to be lead right into the fact that he woke up and was a bug, nothing less and nothing more.
Now that we have looked at this example we are now going to look at the second translation in #2.
-Diction: The main word that caught my eye in this translation is the wording about the dream, troubled, because in our modern society this word has two main meanings, one connotative and the other denotative. The standard denotative meaning of this word is that it means "beset by problems or conflict." this is a very standard approach to this words meaning. However with the connotative meaning of the word we can relate it to mental illness and mental disability. This is a common word used by individuals when describing their thoughts in that they are not able to perform or interact with others due to a physical or mental condition that limits their movement, senses, or even their activities. Also the word enormous, changes the size of the bug, in that giant was big, but enormous is even larger and gives a larger size difference in that case.
-Syntax: The syntax of this translation is a bit better than the first, it gives us a good transition of the word 'when' because that allows the flow of the sentence to have a starting point in time, this also gives the sentence an action/reaction tone. Where he had woken up and then he realized he was now a bug.
-Imagery/Details: Imagery in this section just mainly comes from the time of the translation in that the 'when' gives the reader a place to start his mental imaging and from there they can continue to draw that unraveling scene in their heads. Also with the details on how large the bug actually is this gives the reader a scale to compare the bug to in the scene as well.
-Structure: The structure of the sentence in this translation seems to be a bit more conventional in my opinion. The reason for this judgment is that it contains a transition word. Because of this we are not just being thrown into the scene without knowing what is going on. We now know that Gregor is waking up and THEN he notices that he is an enormous bug. These transition words have an important role on how the reader is to perceive the text as a whole.
Moving on to the thirds translation in #3, there seems to be a shift in the mood from the first two.
-Diction: There comes a bit of a deviation form the original translations in some of the works that are chosen in this translation. First comes the word 'gigantic' and the other 'insect'. Again, the words that are used to describe the size of the bug changes every time. This seems to be the case because each country that is producing this book has a different approach to how large the bug should be imagined as. This is most likely due to cultural and social circumstances that have an impartial bias toward how the actions of this book should be translated. The other word that was changed was the word 'insect', this has more of a negative connotation in respect to the type of bug that he has become. Where before the bug was a harmless ladybug, but now as the word insect is used, I think of things like beetles and centipedes. Thinks that give me major heebie jeebies!
-Syntax: There are no words for punctuation, the quote wants to run and not be slowed down, it seems like it just wants to get to the point and not make a grand scene about things. This idea was also seen in the book we just read The Stranger were the existentialist writing style really comes out and is projected in all of his character action.
-Imagery/Details: When looking at the imagery of this translation, it seems to again with every single translation, come from the description of the bug. The bug is the main focal point of the quote so the author would want there to be less focus on the character of Gregor and more on the transformation that has occurred with the gigantic insect.
-Structure: The structure in this translation seems to be rushed like the first two. In that there are no commas, so the quote is meant to be read through as a whole and not paused at any points. As a result the wording seems to be a bit disjointed and disconnecting, being without structure.
#1: "Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug."
#2: "When Gregory Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug."
#3: "As Gregory Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."
#4: "One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin."
With these translations you can notice right off the bat that each one, upon reading them, has a different feel in the words that they use.
Starting with the first translation #1:
-Diction: When looking at the word choice of the section, two words that stand our are, uneasy and bug. When looking at uneasy, the word follows it natural connotative meaning of the lack of security and the feeling that something is not right. However the use of bug follows a more denotative approach, where the dictionary says that a bug is, "A small insect", but in the context of the quote the bug seems to be more reproachable than a harmless ladybug or mite for that matter.
-Syntax: The syntax in this section seems to be a bit jarring in the fact that there is no use of punctuation in the sentence. There seems to be a needed comma between morning and to. Without the comma it seems to be a bit rushed and posses some kind of discontinuity between the two actions and ideas in the quote.
-Imagery/Details: When we think of a giant bug, we usually think about something very scary, one of our natural instincts when we think of something larger than life, it so make it reproachable. However in this scene and this translation I did not think this about the giant bug, I did not think it was something scary like a tarantula or a scorpion. Rather I though of him more as a cute giant ladybug, or like a Caterpillar. This made this translation seem a bit less scare and a bit more calm in my mind.
-Structure: The structure of this translation seems to be very straight forward. The brevity of the wording and the lack of any real transition words in the quote seem to play on this idea. Because the wording seems to want to just get straight to the point and not waste any time with details, the translation wants us to be lead right into the fact that he woke up and was a bug, nothing less and nothing more.
Now that we have looked at this example we are now going to look at the second translation in #2.
-Diction: The main word that caught my eye in this translation is the wording about the dream, troubled, because in our modern society this word has two main meanings, one connotative and the other denotative. The standard denotative meaning of this word is that it means "beset by problems or conflict." this is a very standard approach to this words meaning. However with the connotative meaning of the word we can relate it to mental illness and mental disability. This is a common word used by individuals when describing their thoughts in that they are not able to perform or interact with others due to a physical or mental condition that limits their movement, senses, or even their activities. Also the word enormous, changes the size of the bug, in that giant was big, but enormous is even larger and gives a larger size difference in that case.
-Syntax: The syntax of this translation is a bit better than the first, it gives us a good transition of the word 'when' because that allows the flow of the sentence to have a starting point in time, this also gives the sentence an action/reaction tone. Where he had woken up and then he realized he was now a bug.
-Imagery/Details: Imagery in this section just mainly comes from the time of the translation in that the 'when' gives the reader a place to start his mental imaging and from there they can continue to draw that unraveling scene in their heads. Also with the details on how large the bug actually is this gives the reader a scale to compare the bug to in the scene as well.
-Structure: The structure of the sentence in this translation seems to be a bit more conventional in my opinion. The reason for this judgment is that it contains a transition word. Because of this we are not just being thrown into the scene without knowing what is going on. We now know that Gregor is waking up and THEN he notices that he is an enormous bug. These transition words have an important role on how the reader is to perceive the text as a whole.
Moving on to the thirds translation in #3, there seems to be a shift in the mood from the first two.
-Diction: There comes a bit of a deviation form the original translations in some of the works that are chosen in this translation. First comes the word 'gigantic' and the other 'insect'. Again, the words that are used to describe the size of the bug changes every time. This seems to be the case because each country that is producing this book has a different approach to how large the bug should be imagined as. This is most likely due to cultural and social circumstances that have an impartial bias toward how the actions of this book should be translated. The other word that was changed was the word 'insect', this has more of a negative connotation in respect to the type of bug that he has become. Where before the bug was a harmless ladybug, but now as the word insect is used, I think of things like beetles and centipedes. Thinks that give me major heebie jeebies!
-Syntax: There are no words for punctuation, the quote wants to run and not be slowed down, it seems like it just wants to get to the point and not make a grand scene about things. This idea was also seen in the book we just read The Stranger were the existentialist writing style really comes out and is projected in all of his character action.
-Imagery/Details: When looking at the imagery of this translation, it seems to again with every single translation, come from the description of the bug. The bug is the main focal point of the quote so the author would want there to be less focus on the character of Gregor and more on the transformation that has occurred with the gigantic insect.
-Structure: The structure in this translation seems to be rushed like the first two. In that there are no commas, so the quote is meant to be read through as a whole and not paused at any points. As a result the wording seems to be a bit disjointed and disconnecting, being without structure.
Lastly with the fourth translation, it follows the same theme of the third translation however it has its' own little wist.
-Diction: Finally with the diction of the last translation the main changes are the description of the dreams as agitated, and the description of the bug that Gregor is transformed into. These two main changes give the quote a very sharp and scary attitude and provide strong emphasis on the rough and deformed nature of the vermin as a whole. The whole quote in this translation seems to act as a rise up to the final portion where it is revealed as to what he was transformed into. This used of diction frightens the audience and subsequently causes the reader to repulse from Gregor who is now in his new form.
-Syntax: There is a lot of punctuation in this translation, the translator clearly wanted the reader to have to slow down and take a more methodical approach to reading the list of the action that Gregor took in his realization that he had been transformed.
-Imagery/Details: The imagery and detail again are with the transformation, however the commas allow for greater emphasis on the smaller sections and the action that Gregor is doing in the scene. This allows for greater dissection of the quote and is action as a whole.
-Structure: The structure of this translation seems for professional in that the commas dissect the reading into smaller portions and slows the reading of the quote. This increased structure also aids in piece by piece action where it seems like the narrator is describing each individual action that Gregor is taking that leads up to his realization of his transformation.
When looking at all of the translations as a whole, you can see that with every change in the diction, syntax, punctuation, and imagery, each one has an affect on the overall mood and tone of the quote as a result. This is because with each change comes a new meaning or a new was at looking at one portion of the of quote. When translating, each language will have different ideas and boundaries that it is bound to. These limitations will then sometimes cause a change in the wording or structure, which will then cause a deviation from the original. In my opinion, I think that the most impactful device in language that changes the translations meaning is diction. The reason that I think this is because in some languages they do not have certain words to describe events or objects like others do. So they must substitute their known vocabulary in as best they can in order to try and match that same meaning as the original. So in this change there is created new meanings, and these new words that are being used will alter the audiences perception of the events, mainly due to the connotation that these words hold in their native languages as well as in society. So these words have that adverse impact on the reader and shift the mood or the emotional value of the section as a result.
After completing this exercise the main difficulty can be seen with reading translated texts. This challenge comes mainly from the fact that no translation will ever be quite like the original. As the diction changes, that original feeling and emotion is also changed as the language changes as well. This affects the overall message of the text as well as mood. Thus showing the major problem that comes from deviating from the original due to these language barriers.
The different translations affect the tone due that that lack of clarity from the original because once you change one small portion from the original copy that will change the tone. This change in tone mainly came from the diction and punctuation. Where the diction changed how I, as the reader, was able to imagine and perceive the different images in the text. Where the bug became more horrid and frightening as the language changed to more and more negative in context. And with the punctuation this affected the pace that the text was read at. Slowing down the reading and making the scene seem more dramatic and suspenseful in my opinion. These are just two main ways in my opinion that the tone of the text can be changed through translation.
-Syntax: There is a lot of punctuation in this translation, the translator clearly wanted the reader to have to slow down and take a more methodical approach to reading the list of the action that Gregor took in his realization that he had been transformed.
-Imagery/Details: The imagery and detail again are with the transformation, however the commas allow for greater emphasis on the smaller sections and the action that Gregor is doing in the scene. This allows for greater dissection of the quote and is action as a whole.
-Structure: The structure of this translation seems for professional in that the commas dissect the reading into smaller portions and slows the reading of the quote. This increased structure also aids in piece by piece action where it seems like the narrator is describing each individual action that Gregor is taking that leads up to his realization of his transformation.
When looking at all of the translations as a whole, you can see that with every change in the diction, syntax, punctuation, and imagery, each one has an affect on the overall mood and tone of the quote as a result. This is because with each change comes a new meaning or a new was at looking at one portion of the of quote. When translating, each language will have different ideas and boundaries that it is bound to. These limitations will then sometimes cause a change in the wording or structure, which will then cause a deviation from the original. In my opinion, I think that the most impactful device in language that changes the translations meaning is diction. The reason that I think this is because in some languages they do not have certain words to describe events or objects like others do. So they must substitute their known vocabulary in as best they can in order to try and match that same meaning as the original. So in this change there is created new meanings, and these new words that are being used will alter the audiences perception of the events, mainly due to the connotation that these words hold in their native languages as well as in society. So these words have that adverse impact on the reader and shift the mood or the emotional value of the section as a result.
After completing this exercise the main difficulty can be seen with reading translated texts. This challenge comes mainly from the fact that no translation will ever be quite like the original. As the diction changes, that original feeling and emotion is also changed as the language changes as well. This affects the overall message of the text as well as mood. Thus showing the major problem that comes from deviating from the original due to these language barriers.
The different translations affect the tone due that that lack of clarity from the original because once you change one small portion from the original copy that will change the tone. This change in tone mainly came from the diction and punctuation. Where the diction changed how I, as the reader, was able to imagine and perceive the different images in the text. Where the bug became more horrid and frightening as the language changed to more and more negative in context. And with the punctuation this affected the pace that the text was read at. Slowing down the reading and making the scene seem more dramatic and suspenseful in my opinion. These are just two main ways in my opinion that the tone of the text can be changed through translation.
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