Volume 1 - Issue 4, November - December 2025

This study investigates the ways in which translation strategies influence the literary meaning and interpretive possibilities of Franz Kafka’s novella Die Verwandlung (commonly known as The Metamorphosis) within the English-speaking world. Through detailed analysis of multiple translations published from the mid-twentieth century to the present, the paper examines how lexical choices, syntactic structures, register, and paratextual framing shape tone, characterization, and thematic emphasis. Using theoretical frameworks such as Eugene Nida’s distinction between formal and dynamic equivalence, Lawrence Venuti’s concepts of domestication and foreignization, and Antoine Berman’s taxonomy of deforming tendencies, the study demonstrates that translation is not a neutral linguistic transfer but an interpretive act with ethical and cultural stakes. Particular attention is paid to the opening sentence, whose delayed predicate and understated diction are central to the novella’s estrangement effect, and to the rendering of the German word Ungeziefer, a term that resists precise taxonomic identification. The findings suggest that translation strategies which preserve ambiguity, resist over-naming, and retain the bureaucratic flatness of Kafka’s style tend to maintain the original’s balance of horror and deadpan humor, whereas strategies that normalize syntax or specify imagery risk reducing interpretive openness. The paper argues that translators who make their decisions visible, rather than concealing them under the guise of transparency, enable readers to engage more critically with the mediated nature of literary experience.