The Importance of Translation

Original: Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt.

#1: Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug.

After reading and understanding the original text, #1 seems to be very straight forward. The sentences doesn't have any punctuation and doesn't establish the setting within this part of the book, as the original text does (he is in his bed). Furthermore the diction used in this version seems to be very simple, the use of Change and uneasy makes a less dramatic tone to the sentence.   

#2: When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug.

In comparison to sentence #1, sentence #2 are less straight forward in both diction and setting. The word choice transformed, troubled  and enormous provides a more dramatic tone to the sentence. Differently from sentence #1, sentence #2 establish the setting, which provides the reader with a better understanding of the surrounding and how Gregor Samsa might have been supersized due to the transformation.   

#3:As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

Sentence #3 is, from my understanding and own translation of the original text, the sentence that is the most direct translated. The sentence structure however, despite this direct translation, was very interesting to me as it didn't include any commas. Furthermore this is the only translation using the word insect, which seems to provide a more formal tone to the sentence.  

#4:One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin.

Sentence #4 uses a very powerful language, with the use of agitated, monstrous and vermin. These words brings a more dramatic tone to the sentence and maybe more emotional. Just as sentence #3, sentence #4 are more directly translated, however this translation uses reversed wording, presenting it as more grammatically correct. 

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 affect the tone of the sentence? 

I think that the word choice, syntax, punctuation and imagery in each of the sentences can have a great affect on the meaning of the sentence. These different variation can have an affect of the intended tone, mood and dramatic effect within a text. Look at the four translations, I noticed that especially the diction play a big role, while looking at tone and mood. Sentence #1 is very straight forward and the use of diction is minimally detailed and descriptive. Comparing this sentence to sentence #4, is can be seen how sentence #4 are more descriptive in the choice of diction. Looking at these two translation, I would argue that the most effective one this sentence #4. Sentence #4 provides the reader/ audience with details about the setting, and a dramatic tone of the situation. 

These exercise was very interesting to me as I have read many translated book and text. Knowing some German is was interesting to see how my own translation of the original text was different from the four translations, and what parts/words was "lost". The thing that often can be difficult, while translating text/books, are providing the right words and details so the text/book doesn't loss its meaning. In many cases languages have expressions and words that can't be translated directly, can't be said in few words or might not exist in the other language. Because of this translators something have to use other words or phrases that are similar so the text/book can be translated, however this might create a loss of meaning or make the translation slight inaccurate.