I like to consult The Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English, which reviews most, though not all, translations of many well-known authors, including Kafka, and can give you an idea of some of the merits (or, I guess, also demerits) of the existing translations out there (up till 2000, at any rate, when the book was published).

If you'd like to get up and running quickly with German in a basic sort of way, I would suggest also taking a look at The Berlitz Self-Teacher: German.

Think of it like a film adaptation of a book, or a particular production of a stage play: it’s not the exact original, but it’s a work of art in its own right that others have contributed their interpretation to.

Weird? No. I might be missing something, but I probably won't know what I'm missing, except in the abstract.

Also: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Ton_beau_de_Marot

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.

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?

I get what you mean. Some copy of a Kafka book I had (I think it was the Trial) had this foreword about the tough translation choices they had to make and how some things were just hard to convey with the same sense. It kinda blew my mind reading Dante's Inferno that they were able to translate poetry and have it make sense and still flow like a poem.

But as someone who enjoys language dabbling, I realize that I'll only learn a few in my life, and those to a pretty limited level. For works that aren't originally in that handful of languages, I don't feel much regret for reading the English. The options are that, or to not engage with the work at all. If something is valuable enough to want to read, then surely it's valuable enough to experience in some way, even if imperfect?

But then for the languages I do have some interest in learning, I do feel some tiny guilt reading translations. There's value to me in setting up some book as a goal and hoping to read it as written. Still, I think the re-read, the 2nd time in original language, has its own appeal.

I watch anime. So, no.

But we're talking about books and I just realised what community I'm in. So, I've read No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. Prolific Japanese author from the... I think 1930s or 1940s? Definitely not contemporary. There are a few translations out there, but the one I read (pink cover with a shadowy shape of a person) was pretty good. I mean it was a good book. I can't speak to how well it was translated. English and Chinese/Japanese are basically the most alien to one another, so translation is not always so straightforward. To understand any Japanese (or Chinese, similar story) you either have to learn the language, the history, the cultural nuances, and maybe live there for 10-20 years... or you have to accept that a translation by someone who has is good enough for you.

German is much closer to English so translation should not prove to be controversial. An interesting anecdote I have about German translation is the industrial metal band Rammstein. In 1998 they were not very well known in the US except for appearing in a David Lynch movie (on the soundtrack). But they wanted to appeal to Americans, so they had someone translate two of their singles to English, and they sang them without question. The song Du Hast is pretty popular, but it was mistranslated. "Du hast" can mean "you hate," but it can also mean "you have," as in like "have me do something" or "compel me to do something." Like "my mom had me do the dishes." And they wrote it in the latter sense. It was never meant to say hate. But he sings "you, you hate, you hate me to say, you hate me to say and I would not obey." This... kind of makes sense. But what Till is trying to say is "you, you have, you have me, you have me to say, you have me to say and I would not obey." "Have" doesn't really work here, it just sounds weird, but, you can kinda get what he's going for. It's more like "you... you force... you compel me... you force me to say and I would not obey." That's what he means. Not hate. Though, he probably also hates the person for having him say something he doesn't agree with.

With Japanese? Much more complex, but similar issues. Like we might say "gomenasai" which kinda means "sorry" (some people like to be cute and say "gomenasorry"). We also might say "sumimasen" which also... seems to mean sorry, but it also seems to mean "excuse me." So what it is... it's like "sorry for bothering you but..." So it's a more formal "Excuse me" if that makes any sense.

You're closer to the work reading a translation more accessible to you than reading the original words with language friction. So you shouldn't feel bad about reading a translation.

It's understandable. You want to read the work as to the author intended.

I'd say it matters from work to work. Some like "La Horde du Contrevent" translations apparently can't capture all the neoligisms and subtlety of the original. Something like Kafka relies less on the specific words usually and more the path of the story and ideas and so reading a translation is just fine.