1. This translation is more story like, and telling us more casually how Gregory transformed into a giant bug. This is expressed through the phrasing "As Gregory" awoke, which paints a picture of him waking up rather than just telling us he woke up.
2. This translation is stated more as a fact and is informing the reader that Gregory woke up and was transformed into a giant bug.
3. This translation is saying that the uneasy dreams could be what triggered the transformation of Gregory, this is seen through staring the sentence off with "When".
4. This translation is story like as well, starting off with "One morning", and also insinuates that the dreams caused the transformation.
The word choice in the beginning of each translation is what really changes the mood and direction of the sentence. Using words to start of the sentence like "As" or "When", paint a picture in the readers mind of Gregory actually completing the action of waking up from uneasy dreams. In contrast to this the two other sentences used different methods. The second sentence started off with just Gregory's name, stating the sentence as a fact, while the last sentence began with "One morning", creating a story like mood for the reader. I feel as though the last sentence is the most effective, because it tells a story and paints a vivid image in the readers head of what is happening to Gregory and why.
This exercise shows the difficulty in reading translated text because even the slightest change in punctuation or word choice can change the entire meaning of the sentence. Different translations effect whether the tone of the sentence is going to be informative, or informal. It also shows how important it is to take note of all the punctuation, and stylistic features of the sentence so that you can grasp the full meaning of the sentence and what is contributes to the text as a whole.
I really enjoyed reading this! I think that your analysis was well-done but could've been stronger by looking at more aspects of the translations, such as punctuation, syntax, and imagery. A lot of what you looked at had to do with structure, which does impact the tone, but I think that to get a well-rounded conclusion of the individual meaning and/or tone of each translation, one must look at various components of the sentences. I think that what you DID analyze was done very well - good job :)
ReplyDeleteSome good thoughts here, but perhaps you could elaborate more on analyze why.
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