Nothing Really Mattress

"Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug."

  Something that immediately separates this translation from the other three is the translation of "Gregor" to the more Americanized name "Gregory." This has the same effect that "mother" did in comparison to "maman" in Camus' The Stranger. By changing the name, it feels more comfortable and natural to the English-speaking reader, although it takes away the cultural significance the original name carries. Abandoning this original name can cause readers to forget the German origin in the same way that translating the first line in The Stranger to "mother" can cause the novella to lose its French origin. By placing the name at the beginning of the sentence causes the reader to immediately attach themselves to the protagonist (I'm assuming he is the protagonist?) rather than feeling like an outsider looking in on his-very odd-experience. In this way, this translation utilizes structure and syntax in a productive way by creating a connection between the reader and protagonist. 
  The translation of the words "giant bug" create this scene to be more comical in comparison the the other three by using a pretty basic word like "giant" (like, dude, get a thesaurus) that does not really carry any sort of shock value in comparison to words like "enormous," "gigantic" or "monstrous" used in the other translations. the usage of the word "bug" does get the point across well by not causing any sort of ambiguity, although it carries a comical tone in the same way that "giant" does. The word "changed" is not as successful in creating an image as some of the other words used.  For this reason, diction and imagery is not utilized well in this translation.

"When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug."

  The usage of the name Gregor helps to create cultural weight in the sentence by establishing the character as being of German origin. The placing of the word "when" at the beginning of the sentence makes the line seem as it is a sequential retelling of events, taking away from the the pathos involved in the situation. The usage of the word "enormous" helps to establish more shock in the situation. However, the translation of the word "bug" has the same issues that sentence one had. Overall, this translation utilized diction and imagery sightly better than the first sentence, but their usage of syntax was poor.

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."

  The words "gigantic" and "insect" work most favorably in painting an accurate image, and overall this takes the best aspects of all of the other sentences. For these reasons, this sentence translation utilizes both diction and syntax the best, making it my personal favorite.

"One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin."

  One weakness in this translation is the description of the dreams. The usage of the word "agitated" (and the second translation had the same issue with the word "troubled" being used) personifies the dreams, causing more emphasis to be put onto the dreams in this sentence. This would be perfectly fine if the dreams had a more important role in the sentence's meaning. However, they are insignificant to the sentence, so this word usage is distracting. The word "vermin" is also inaccurate compared to the other translations, as the word "vermin" is more commonly associated with rats rather than bugs or insects, what Gregor assumably transforms into. Lastly, introducing Gregor in the middle of the sentence rather than the beginning like the other three sentence translations causes a lack of the personal quality the others had. Overall, this was-in my opinion-the worst translation out of the set.

How does the word choice, syntax, punctuation, and imagery shift in each affect meaning? Is one more effective than another? Why? What does this exercise bring up about the difficulty of reading translated texts? How do different translations effect the tone of the sentence? 

  As mentioned in the previous five paragraphs, minor changes in syntax, punctuation and imagery have all had major effects on the overall meaning. Word choice like "vermin" vs. "insect" and "change" vs. "transform" all cause drastically different effects on how the reader interprets the text. The third sentence was more effective in comparison to the fourth sentence in both syntax, punctuation and imagery. The word insect is more specific than vermin, which allowed for a better image to be created in the reader's mind. Also the third sentence's introducing of Gregor more early on helps to establish him as the main focus of the sentence in comparison to the fourth sentence.

  It can be difficult to read translated texts because it is difficult to really grasp the true meaning when trying to find a English equivalent; it is similar to a student lazily going into an essay and using a thesaurus when trying to make words sound more sophisticated--it does not always work, and it can strip the meaning of the sentence. It could also strip the tone like previously mentioned with the usage of "mother" vs. "maman." When "mother" was used, it caused the sentence to carry a colder tone, while the more affectionate "maman" truly encapsulates that Meursault was upset with his mom's death.