Editing Franz Kafka (section)

==== Translation problems to English ====
{{further|Franz Kafka bibliography#English translations}} {{further|The Metamorphosis#Translations of the opening sentence}}

Kafka often made extensive use of a characteristic particular to German, which permits long sentences that sometimes can span an entire page. Kafka's sentences sometimes deliver an unexpected impact just before the full stop, finalizing the meaning and focus of the sentence. This is due to the construction of [[subordinate clauses in German]], which require that the verb be at the end of the sentence. Such constructions are difficult to duplicate in English, so it is up to the translator to provide the reader with the same (or an at least equivalent) effect as the original text.{{sfn|Kafka|1996|p=xi}} German's more flexible word order and [[Syntactic ambiguity|syntactical]] differences provide for multiple ways in which the same German writing can be translated into English.{{sfn|Newmark|1991|pp=63–64}} An example is the first sentence of Kafka's ''[[The Metamorphosis#Translations of the opening sentence|The Metamorphosis]]'', which is crucial to the setting and understanding of the entire story:{{sfn|Bloom|2003|pp=23–26}}

{{Verse translation|Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt.|As Gregor Samsa one morning from restless dreams awoke, found he himself in his bed into a monstrous vermin transformed.|lang=de|attr1=original|attr2=literal word-for-word translation{{sfn|Prinsky|2002}}}}

The sentence above also exemplifies an instance of another difficult problem facing translators: dealing with the author's intentional use of ambiguous [[idiom]]s and words that have several meanings, which results in phrasing that is difficult to translate precisely.{{sfn|Lawson|1960|pp=216–219}}{{sfn|Rhine|1989|pp=447–458}} English translators often render the word {{lang|de|Ungeziefer|italic=}} as 'insect'; in Middle German, however, {{lang|de|Ungeziefer|italic=}} literally means 'an animal unclean for sacrifice';{{sfn|Corngold|1973|p=10}} in today's German, it means 'vermin'. <!-- Brod referred to it as Insekt, though.{{sfn|Brod|1960|p=? will add when source is found again}} --> It is sometimes used colloquially to mean 'bug'—a very general term, unlike the scientific 'insect'. Kafka had no intention of labeling Gregor, the protagonist of the story, as any specific thing but instead wanted to convey Gregor's disgust at his transformation.{{sfn|Sokel|1956|pp=203–214}}{{sfn|Luke|1951|pp=232–245}} Another example of this can be found in the final sentence of "[[Das Urteil]]" ("The Judgement"), with Kafka's use of the German noun {{lang|de|[[wikt:Verkehr|Verkehr]]|italic=}}. Literally, {{lang|de|Verkehr|italic=}} means 'intercourse' and, as in English, can have either a sexual or a non-sexual meaning. The word is additionally used to mean 'transport' or 'traffic'; therefore the sentence can also be translated as: "At that moment an unending stream of traffic crossed over the bridge."{{sfn|Kafka|1996|p=75}} The double meaning of ''Verkehr'' is given added weight by Kafka's confession to Brod that when he wrote that final line he was thinking of "a violent ejaculation".{{sfn|Brod|1960|p=129}}{{sfn|Hawes|2008|p=50}}