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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by daggermoon@lemmy.world to c/books@lemmy.ml

The only language I know with any fluency is English. I want to read The Trial by Franz Kafka. The Trial was written in German and if I read an English translation I feel I am not really reading Kafka. Am i the only one who feels this way? Does it even matter?

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[-] modulus@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

Translation sets a certain distance between you and the work, that is inevitable. But so does time, for example. Should you not read anything from earlier than the 1950s because language has changed?

this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025
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