Submitted by Linda Marianiello, Mar 6, 2008 11:50

Thank you very much for Mr. Lytal's excellent review of the current transformation in the way we English-language readers view and experience Franz Kafka. It is inspiring to us translators of German to English to see such a well thought out, balanced, informative review.

As a translator myself, I would like to mention just how very difficult it is to make the very kinds of choices which Mr. Lytal occasionally disagrees with. First, we cannot know for sure if the decision concerning Ungeziefer (vermin) was made by Mr. Hoffmann or by his editor. Today, many of those final decisions are not necessarily in the hands of the translator.

Secondly, I appreciate Mr. Lytal's frank admission that an excellent translator such as Mr. Hofmann does go out on a limb in making certain bold choices. The question of just how closely and in what manner to best bring across the original text is one that we translators ask ourselves every day.

Personally, I tend to attempt to remain as true as possible to the original German, whether the author is as famous as Kafka or not. But this must be balanced with the creation of an English-language text that American readers can relate to and get excited about without reference to the original German. We must assume that most Americans do not read German and thus cannot refer back to Kafka's original text.

Thank you for this opportunity to express my views.

Sincerely,

Linda Marianiello
P. S. - Please reply to BOTH of the above e-mail addresses, as one or the other sometimes gets spammed out by various servers. Thank you.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.