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Why is The Metamorphosis a difficult story to translate?

A. The subject matter is not interesting to readers.
B. There are many different interpretations of Kafka's original words.
C. The short story has already been translated into many languages.
D. Kafka's work requires a 100 percent literal, word-for-word translation.

User Jake W
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2 Answers

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I believe the correct answer is B, that there are many different interpretations of Kafka's original words. It is a very difficult book to read, and has various meanings which may be hard to translate.
User Bruno L
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The correct answer is B. There are many different interpretations of Kafka's original words.

Step-by-step explanation:

"The Metamorphosis" is a novel by Franz Kafta that narrates the life of Gregor Samsa as he woke up one day and finds his body has transformed into the one of an insect. This novel is the most famous work form Kaftka and it is widely all around the globe. However, the translation of the novel which was originally written in German, to another language is especially difficult, the first reason for this is that German language grammatical structures cannot be replicated in some of the languages and besides this, the interpretations of the novel and Kafka's words are multiple an example of this is that Kaftka use a word in German to describe the new condition of Gregor that means an unclean animal, but that has been translated as insect, beetle or even cockroach which might not be the purpose of Kafka's original words and by changing the purpose of the author's words the sense of the novel is negatively affected. Thus, one of the main reasons why "The Metamorphosis" is a difficult story to translate is because there are many interpretations of the author's original words which create different and even inaccurate meanings when these are translated to other languages.

User Riquelmy Melara
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