I Bed to Differ
Translation #1: Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug.
When looking at this translation, the first thing that stuck out in my mind was how this translation has the name as Gregory instead of Gregor like the other 3. This is a very strange piece of diction because names are usually not changed or different in translations. Another choice of word that was very strange to me was the use of the word "changed". When I think of someone who went to bed as a human and woke up as a bug I would describe that as a transformation, like the translators did in the other three. The translator uses the descriptive word "uneasy" to describe what type of dreams Gregory was having and it makes the reader think that is was something that caused him not to want to keep sleeping.
When looking at this translation, the first thing that stuck out in my mind was how this translation has the name as Gregory instead of Gregor like the other 3. This is a very strange piece of diction because names are usually not changed or different in translations. Another choice of word that was very strange to me was the use of the word "changed". When I think of someone who went to bed as a human and woke up as a bug I would describe that as a transformation, like the translators did in the other three. The translator uses the descriptive word "uneasy" to describe what type of dreams Gregory was having and it makes the reader think that is was something that caused him not to want to keep sleeping.
Translation #2: When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug.
When looking at this translation, unlike the first translation, the translator uses the word "troubled" instead of "uneasy". Both of which mean the same thing but when the reader reads troubled they think that Gregor is having nightmares unlike when the reader reads it with the word "uneasy". An other interesting choice of syntax is how this translator included the phrase in his bed, which to me seems like a pointless piece of information because why would it matter where he was transformed? He fell asleep so the reader should be assuming that he is in his bed. On the other hand it also allows for additional information on where Gregor is and helps piece together an image inside the readers head. Lastly, the translator chose to utilize the word "enormous" to describe how massive the bug was. Enormous is way more descriptive and, personally for me, emphasizes on a bigger bug than that described with the word "giant". It also provides an image inside the readers mind.
When looking at this translation, unlike the first translation, the translator uses the word "troubled" instead of "uneasy". Both of which mean the same thing but when the reader reads troubled they think that Gregor is having nightmares unlike when the reader reads it with the word "uneasy". An other interesting choice of syntax is how this translator included the phrase in his bed, which to me seems like a pointless piece of information because why would it matter where he was transformed? He fell asleep so the reader should be assuming that he is in his bed. On the other hand it also allows for additional information on where Gregor is and helps piece together an image inside the readers head. Lastly, the translator chose to utilize the word "enormous" to describe how massive the bug was. Enormous is way more descriptive and, personally for me, emphasizes on a bigger bug than that described with the word "giant". It also provides an image inside the readers mind.
Translation #3: As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.
When looking at this translation, the translator did not use any commas in this translation but when I was reading it I thought that there could have a good use of a comma right after the word dreams. I feel like it would have been a natural pause and helped the sentence flow smoother. This translator utilized the word "as" as if he is just now waking up and we are figuring everything out the same time that he is. This author also utilized the word "uneasy" as in the first translation to describe the dreams and similarly he used the word "gigantic", which is a synonym for the word "giant." It is not as descriptive as 'enormous" but it is definitely more descriptive than saying the big is "giant." One very interesting choice of word is how the translator said "insect" instead of the word "bug." This allows the reader to have hundreds of different images of what type of insect Gregor could be.
Translation #4: One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin.
When looking at this translation, the first thing that pops up is how this sentence is broken down into multiple different sections with the use of commas. This differentiates it from the other three translations. For some reason this translator used that format, and personally I don't like it. It seems as though whoever wrote this is illiterate and could've reworded this sentence to make it sound a lot better. They also chose to use the word "agitated" to describe the types of dreams Gregor was having. This choice of word was different than the other three and it made it seem as though the dreams were annoying him, unlike in the first three when it seemed like he was getting scared from his dreams. Lastly, the translator used the words "monstrous" and "vermin." Neither of these words were used in the other three translations and they both provide different meaning to the reader. The word "monstrous" alludes that the bug looks more like a monster than a bug and the use of the word "vermin" is totally wacko (I don't know what that word means so it initially was hard for me to understand and that is why that choice of word was not a very good choice).
The choice of diction and syntax is very different and provides multiple different interpretations of one single line of a book as well as multiple ways to how the book can be read.
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 effect the tone of the sentence?
The overall us of word choice, syntax, punctuation, and imagery all have an affect on the meaning of the sentence. In my opinion the use of word choice is the most important and most effective when comparing it to the others because different words have different meanings and the word that you choose in the end is what is going to be the cause of the reader having an interpretation that can be viewed one way compared to another way. The main example I saw was the use of the words "giant", "enormous", "gigantic", and "monstrous". Each of these examples have something different from one to the other. These descriptive words help provide an estimate on how big the creature may be. To me, giant is not even as close to as big as enormous and same for the others. Each of the descriptive words provide a different size in the readers mind. The others are still important too. The use of syntax, the arrangement of words, helps the sentence flow smoothly and helps the reader better understand the sentence. When looking at translation number one compared to translation number four, the first translation is much easier to comprehend because it is formatted simply compared to having a choppy, nonflowing, sentence like the one shown in translation four. When looking at this example again, the punctuation plays a huge roll. The use of commas helped break down the sentence into many parts but there were too many and the sentence could've been condensed to where there were no punctuation marks at all. The imagery shift also has to do with the author's word choice. It is dependent on the word choice, therefore I said that word choice is the most important.
This exercise showed me that it can be extremely difficult to read a translated text because there are many ways a text can be translated. The tone of the text is dependent on the translation. The tone of each of the texts were all different, whether it was a slight difference or a big difference, it was all because of the difference in the translation.
When looking at this translation, the first thing that pops up is how this sentence is broken down into multiple different sections with the use of commas. This differentiates it from the other three translations. For some reason this translator used that format, and personally I don't like it. It seems as though whoever wrote this is illiterate and could've reworded this sentence to make it sound a lot better. They also chose to use the word "agitated" to describe the types of dreams Gregor was having. This choice of word was different than the other three and it made it seem as though the dreams were annoying him, unlike in the first three when it seemed like he was getting scared from his dreams. Lastly, the translator used the words "monstrous" and "vermin." Neither of these words were used in the other three translations and they both provide different meaning to the reader. The word "monstrous" alludes that the bug looks more like a monster than a bug and the use of the word "vermin" is totally wacko (I don't know what that word means so it initially was hard for me to understand and that is why that choice of word was not a very good choice).
The choice of diction and syntax is very different and provides multiple different interpretations of one single line of a book as well as multiple ways to how the book can be read.
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 effect the tone of the sentence?
The overall us of word choice, syntax, punctuation, and imagery all have an affect on the meaning of the sentence. In my opinion the use of word choice is the most important and most effective when comparing it to the others because different words have different meanings and the word that you choose in the end is what is going to be the cause of the reader having an interpretation that can be viewed one way compared to another way. The main example I saw was the use of the words "giant", "enormous", "gigantic", and "monstrous". Each of these examples have something different from one to the other. These descriptive words help provide an estimate on how big the creature may be. To me, giant is not even as close to as big as enormous and same for the others. Each of the descriptive words provide a different size in the readers mind. The others are still important too. The use of syntax, the arrangement of words, helps the sentence flow smoothly and helps the reader better understand the sentence. When looking at translation number one compared to translation number four, the first translation is much easier to comprehend because it is formatted simply compared to having a choppy, nonflowing, sentence like the one shown in translation four. When looking at this example again, the punctuation plays a huge roll. The use of commas helped break down the sentence into many parts but there were too many and the sentence could've been condensed to where there were no punctuation marks at all. The imagery shift also has to do with the author's word choice. It is dependent on the word choice, therefore I said that word choice is the most important.
This exercise showed me that it can be extremely difficult to read a translated text because there are many ways a text can be translated. The tone of the text is dependent on the translation. The tone of each of the texts were all different, whether it was a slight difference or a big difference, it was all because of the difference in the translation.
Wow, I really liked the individual analysis of each translation! One thing you pointed out that I didn't notice was the use of Gregory instead of Gregor, which is such a peculiar difference. I also liked how you mentioned natural pauses, and where you felt commas should go to make the sentence flow better. Maybe they don't use punctuation as much in French and it did not translate over? Anyways, this was a very thorough blog and was very enjoyable!
ReplyDelete*reads title* *laughs* *slaps knee* YO CMILLS, what is GOOD my guy. After reading your interpretations of each translation, I have to say that you quite in depth for each one. You pointed out the difference in diction, such as Gregor vs. Gregory and troubled vs. uneasy. You also talked about the syntax and structure of each one, which contributed to their different meanings. One thing I took away from your writing was how that different translations provoke slightly different tones, all affecting the meaning and way the text is interpreted. One addition that could be made would be a conclusion on whether or not one translation is more effective than another. Overall great blog post. Stay frosty man.
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