As one commentator says – “ The German word ‘ Ungeziefer‘, like its English equivalent ‘vermin’, is a generic term, a collective noun denoting all sorts of undesirable insects. But the general consensus has been that Kafka didn’t really specify the exact nature of the insect.

It has been translated as ‘ vermin‘ and ‘ bug‘ and ‘ insect‘ at different times and sometimes even ‘ cockroach‘. Readers, critics, commentators and Kafka scholars have debated for years what exactly Kafka meant by that word. The word that Kafka uses in the German original is ‘ Ungeziefer‘. For me, the most important difference was how the word ‘ vermin‘ has been replaced by ‘ cockroach‘ in Hofmann’s translation. There are minor variations in the two translations and one can argue one way or another.

When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself changed into a monstrous cockroach in his bed. When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. In the present case, I read the first sentence of both the translations. Then the choices become more interesting. Sometimes these things are contradictory – for example, the faithful translation may not read well while the translation which reads well may not be faithful. I also look at things like, has the translator kept the implied meaning of the original sentence or has he / she tried explaining / clarifying the meaning in the translated sentence. While deciding which one to read, I look at things like which translation feels faithful to the original and which translation reads better. I read the first sentence and the first paragraph and then maybe the first page and then read a random passage in both the translations and see which translation works for me. With respect to translations, readers normally regard the shiny new ones as always better and opt for them. I had two translations of the book – an older 1972 translation by Stanley Corngold and a newer 2007 translation by Michael Hofmann. I read the graphic novel adaptation of this book a few years back and had wanted to read the original since. This first post is about Franz Kafka’s ‘ The Metamorphosis‘. So today, the last day of this year’s German Literature Month, I decided to write about them.

Though reading like this is not enjoyable, I managed to read three books. So for the past few days I pushed myself and read a little bit. But my heart couldn’t accept this state of affairs. I missed participating even in my favourite reading event of the year – German Literature Month. I tried to get out of this reading slump by participating in reading events, but this didn’t work. My reading has been pretty bad this year and it has affected my blogging adversely.

Kafka the cockroach