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combination. Incompatibles, when fused, spark
ambiguous meanings, and ambiguity contributes to
disarray. To turn it into “sound democratic English”
divests the text of significance and strips it of subtlety.
Moreover, it alters the author’s style, because personal
style is, according to Ortega y Gasset, the author’s
ability to use words in a sense slightly different from
their common usage.
When Gregor lifts his head, he sees his belly,
which has also been changed. It is geteilt (divided).
Clayton Koelb detects in Kafka’s work the concept of
syllepsis and dialepsis. Syllepsis stands for the unity
of two entities, e.g., human and animal, that are
ordinarily apart. Dialepsis means ordinarily indivisible
entities, e.g., the belly, that are presented as split in
two. At the same moment Gregor realizes that he is
human and animal, he also notices an unusual
dividedness of his body. Koelb sees in Kafka’s
repeated use of dialepsis a symbol for his selfalienation
and the split he felt between himself as
author and himself as self (25–27). In Gregor’s case,
one might, therefore, entertain the idea that dialepsis
occurring at the same time as syllepsis symbolizes a
schizophrenic mind. Such an idea seems not to be too
far-fetched when one considers Kafka’s concern with
the cover for the first edition of his story. He begged
his publisher not to show any animal creature: “Not
this, please not this! … The insect cannot be pictured”
(quoted in Heller 58). The cover author and publisher
finally agreed upon shows a man in a nightgown,
covering his face with both hands, a fact that supports
objections to Corngold’s idea of Gregor’s new
entomological identity. Be this as it may, a translation
like example 8 that renders the “geteilten Bauch” as
“banded with what looked like reinforcing arches”
obstructs the reader’s ability to develop those possible
interpretations.
Kafka’s second paragraph begins with direct
speech: “‘Was ist mit mir geschehen’ dachte er”
(Kafka 56). Translation 1 changes direct speech into
stream of consciousness. According to Iser, literary
texts have only a limited repertoire of signals at their
disposal to establish a textual perspective. “Quotation
marks are perhaps the most striking of these, to denote
that a sentence is in fact the utterance of a character”
(113). If “What has happened to me” were only
Gregor’s thought, the reader could visualize the
situation only from Gregor’s viewpoint. If this
sentence is indeed spoken, the reader can also choose
to take the stance (to some extent) of a sadistic or
voyeuristic external observer. Kafka, deciding on
quotation marks combined with the verb dachte,
which translation 2 renders very sensitively as
wondered, left the reader the choice of where to
position her/himself. Translation 1, on the other hand,
does not lead the reader even to suspect that the words
may be aimed at her/him.
The reader finds her/himself together with Gregor
in a “richtiges, nur etwas zu kleines
Menschenzimmer” (Kafka 56). The word
Menschenzimmer is Kafka’s creation. It does not exist
in German but clearly alludes to something like a
doghouse. It is certainly not “a regular human
bedroom” (1, 5) or “a real man’s room” (6). Kafka’s
neologism must find its counterpart in English to let
the intended imagery arise. “Sound, democratic
English” describing the room as regular, normal, or
ordinary will not do. Gregor lives in a real
humanroom. This is once more a phrase full of
ambiguity and with a special halo around the written
words suggesting that one also reads something that is
unwritten. Furthermore, spoken with a full stop, it is a
simple, though strange, statement. Spoken with an
exclamation mark it is mocking and sarcastic. This
equivocacy is important in connection with the
sentence that follows. Gregor’s eyes turn toward a
picture that is untergebracht in a frame. Again, Kafka
combined words that are not usually combined.
Untergebracht means in German to store something
away or to find a place for someone to stay that
provides no comfort whatsoever. Four translators
render this verb as to put in, which is correct.
Nevertheless, we know that to put is one of these
English verbs weakened by overuse. Translators 3 and
7 chose to lodge, to insert, or to place and capture
Kafka’s intentors best. They suggest the necessary
connection between picture and Gregor, both encased
in a confined area. This confinement is further
emphasized when Gregor looks out the window and
sees that the weather is trüb. A reader familiar with
Goethe immediately is reminded of the “Trüber Tag”
scene in Faust. Translations of of trüb in works by
Goethe as well as Kafka range from overcast, foggy,
or dismal to dull, gloomy, dreary, and murky. We
must be aware that trüb in this scene applies to both
the weather and to Gregor’s psychological condition,
which excludes translations like overcast or foggy.
Daring to depart from the literal, a plausible and
simple translation is gray. It expresses melancholy
and meteorology, and it conforms to Kafka’s style,
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