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/lit/ - Literature

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1963470 No.1963470 [Reply] [Original]

:Serious Kafka translation discussion

I don't speak German. I've read the complete works of Kafka in English, tried a few different translations, liked the Muir's above all.

According to assholes like J.M. Coetzee, Harold Bloom, and other literary scholars, "Kafka has not yet been [zomg so accurately] translated into english".

So the questions are;

- To those that have read Kafka - preferred translation?
- To those that can speak both english and german and/or can cite information, are english speakers missing out on THE BRILLIANT KAFKAESQUE EXPERIENCE?
- Again to those who can speak english and german, which translation is a) "most accurate" and b) da best

serious thread plz

>> No.1963483

I've read the Muir translations of Castle, Trial, Amerika and Metamorphosis, and didn't like any of them. I don't understand why people like Kafka.

>> No.1963481

>serious literature discussion
>/lit/

choose one

>> No.1963487

Demerde-toi.

Or learn German.

>> No.1963491

op here, just realized another kafka thread just went up. fuck that thread, this takes precedence.

2nd poster gfy

>> No.1963494

>>1963483
>I don't understand why people like things I don't like
>people shouldn't do that
>everyone should be me

faggot detected

>> No.1963498

>>1963483
You were given good enough reasons in that thread you started yesterday. have some precious attention

>> No.1963501

Of course you're missing out. Translations always lose something.

>> No.1963540

Applicable to Kafka aswell as Dostoevsky

From Aldous Huxley's "The Genius and the Goddess":

"The trouble with fiction, said David Foster Wallace, "is that it makes too much sense. Reality never makes sense."
"Never?" I questioned.
"Maybe from God's point of view," he conceded. "Never from ours. Fiction has unity, fiction has style. Facts possess neither. In the raw, existence is always one damned thing after another, and each of the damned things is simultaneously Mickey Spillane and Maxwell and Thomas a Kempis. The criterion of reality is its intrinsic irrelevance." And when I asked, "To what?" he waved a square brown hand in the direction of the bookshelves. "To the Best that has been Thought and Said", he declared with mock portentousness. And then, "Oddly enough, the closest to reality are always the fictions that are supposed to be the least true." He leaned over and touched the back of a battered copy of The Brotahers Karamazov. "It makes so little sense that it's almost real. Which is more that can be said for any of the academic kinds of fiction...."

>> No.1963547

I don't speak nor read German, but I've read that most of Kafka's greatness comes from his inventive use of the language.

Going from language to language, there are always, ALWAYS things that don't translate well, or things that even translate too well as to end up banal or mediocre.

Think of it this way: if Kafka is lauded for his novel use of the German language, a translator has to be just as acrobatic with English (or whatever language they're translating the text into) and most translators don't have this creative skill. I'd love to learn German, and see for myself, but I've got three other languages to worry about at the moment. Regardless, I would never say someone's prose is boring or sucks when it's a goddamn translate. I mean, what the fuck?

>> No.1963585

BUMP I DONT WANT TO LEARN FUCKING GERMAN

/

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE A GENIUS TO LEARN GERMAN?

>> No.1963592

>>1963585
If you type in all caps you aren't a genius, so ask for a more realistic estimate.

>> No.1963596

>>1963585
German is very similar to English. As far as learning a language after English, German is easy tier. A great chunk of the words are exactly the same, for crying out loud.

>> No.1963619

>>1963592
GENIUS HERE, YOU'RE EITHER REALLY DUMB AND TRYING TO TEST YOUR 'FITTING INTO INTELLECTUALISM' CAPABILITIES ON AN anonymous website lol OR YOU ARE A FUCKING AWFUL TROLL

seriously though i'm a genius. sorry. all caps and genius play off of the fact that all caps is never genius, and we're on 4 fucking chan. so its funny not only because i'm not a genius, but even moreso because i am.

>> No.1963626

>>1963619
this post has proven that you are, in fact, fucking retarded

>> No.1963634

>>1963626
but y r u mad

>> No.1963650
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1963650

>>1963634

>> No.1963668

>>1963634
>>1963619
>>1963585

Worst troll ever?
Worst troll ever.

>> No.1963671

>>1963650
no, see, that image is so meaningful

but you REALLY ARE MAD

which is really why this is funny

i'm not a genius, but you're a moron for reacting to that proclamation - on the ANONYMOUS [bigger text] WEBSITE

>> No.1963681
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1963681

>>1963671
>I call you a retard
>HAHA UR MAD

>> No.1964502

lol sunhawk doesnt like kafka and he puts 50 orson scott card novels in 21st must read chart

he has the worst taste on /lit/