miércoles, 2 de octubre de 2013

A JEW IN PRAGUE, OR A BUG OF WHATEVER SPECIES

Consider the translations of Franz Kafka's most famous novel.
"Metamorphosis" in German (Kafka didn't write his works in Czech!) is the cognate "Metamorphose". The original title, Die Verwandlung, translates to "The Transformation". Perhaps this was lost in translation because he turns into... what?
Some translations say "beetle". That's "Maikäfer". Others opt for "cockroach". It's "Kakerlake" in German. The word used by Kafka in Die Verwandlung, the original, is "Ungeziefer". Which refers to any kind of repulsive invertebrate. In plain English, a B.U.G. of whatever species (though, given Kafka's descriptions, it must be a specimen of the order Coleoptera, which encompasses beetles, cockroaches, and ladybirds).
Metaphorically, "Ungeziefer" may be used of people considered inferior. For example, the Jews of Catholic Prague in the 1900s. Kafka was born and raised in a strictly anti-Semitic Austria-Hungary. And he had been called a bug (i.e. an "Ungeziefer") more than once. Consider that Kafka's antihero Samsa has a surname remarkably similar to his creator's (with S for K and M for F).
No Czech Jews were harmed or are intended to be harmed by this post. Thank you for understanding this.

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