Does anyone else feel weird about reading translations? (lemmy.world)

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

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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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[-] Vupware@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

It irks me too.

However, most popular books written in languages other than English have a broad array of translations. People will usually provide insight into which translation is the most faithful to the prose of the original.

this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025

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