Lost in translation
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-diction is informal and uses words that most people often use in everyday conversation, "giant" and "bug".
- neither positive nor negative connotations, just seems casual.
- basic structure: Noun, verb, adjective, noun.
- Gives off the image of someone waking up from bad sleep, to then see himself changed (not sure if he saw it when he woke up immediately, or when they looked into a mirror?) into a bug like a spider or cricket type creature.
- It is structured as if it's all one thought, there are no commas or conjunctions to connect him waking up to finding out he changed into a giant bug.
#2:When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug.
-diction is somewhat more descriptive of the event, more formal.Because it uses words like "enormous" and "awoke" which are not typically used in everyday conversation.
-gives off negative connotations because it describes his dreams as "troubled"
-gives off a more dramatic image of someone waking up from a nightmare, and seeing themselves as a very big bug while in bed.
-"he had been transformed" gives off the impression that someone else transformed him, instead of himself.
-seems somewhat repetitive because it says "he found he had" uses "he" twice
-also structured like a single, complete thought because of the lack of commas and conjunctions
#3:As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.
- diction is somewhat formal because of words like "awoke" and "insect" but also seems informal because they use casual words like "gigantic"
-gives off somewhat negative connotations
- gives off image of someone waking up to find out they had transformed into a bug.
- the word 'gigantic' implies that the insect has a large body, aka very big.
- again, this sentence is all together as one complete thought and isn't separated by commas.
#4:One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin.
- diction is formal, because of words like "upon awakening", makes this seem like a very descriptive story
- gives off negative connotation because it describes his dreams as "agitated" and "monstrous" which imply something negative.
- the word vermin is much more vague than insect, because it allows for him to possibly be imagined as some sort of rodent.
- the structure seems very organized and the commas help the reader to create pauses in between
- the word "monstrous" implies that the creature is large in size and that they are monster-like
- unlike the other 3 examples it states his name after the verb
In each of the translations, the different word choices and structure have a big impact on how the reader envisions what is happening as well as the connotation. For example, #1 and #3 use 'uneasy' in order to describe his dreams, while #2 and #4 use 'troubled' and 'agitated' which give a more negative connotation, and imply that his dreams were actually nightmares. While 'uneasy' doesn't have as negative of a connotation and don't have the same dramatic impact when describing his dreams. Word choice is also very important for the imagery. Unlike the first 3, #4 uses the most different word choices of all. Words like 'vermin' help to create a very different image in the reader's mind as opposed to 'bug' or 'insect'. 'Vermin' could mean anything from rat to roach because it does not specify, each reader could picture this scene differently. I also think that structure plays a big role in how the reader can perceive the writing. The first 3 don't include any commas or conjunctions which may them seem like a complete thought or a run-on sentence. While the 4th one includes commas and starts of with the setting rather than 'Gregor'. This helps to provide better imagery as well as have a more dramatic impact because of the pauses that are required with the commas. I think that the fourth one is more effective than the rest because it has a better structure, and imagery.
This exercise helps to perfectly portray the difficulty of translating texts because meaning is often lost in translation. I don't speak German but I'm pretty sure the english translations don't have the same impact in words like the original. Translation can cause a loss of meaning because some languages may not have the same words that others have. Different translations can result in different tones produced because the words will never actually be the same as the original and any attempt to match it can lead to inaccurate wording. This also applies to The Stranger by Albert Camus, originally written in French, but we are reading it in English. From personal experience, taking french for 4 years, I've noticed that many words don't exactly translate with 100% accuracy and that translating sentences directly usually don't make any sense. The Stranger due to being translated so many times probably has different meaning in each translation, the slightest change in word choice, or structure can greatly impact a text.
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