The Castle, Definitive Edition, Muir Translation
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| Author | Franz Kafka |
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| Translator | Edwin Muir, Willa Muir, Eithne Wilkins, Ernst Kaiser |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Philosophical, Dystopian novel |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Released | 1954 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 528 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-8052-1039-3 |
The Castle is a philosophical novel by Franz Kafka. The Plot introduction and summary may be found at the generic article The Castle.
The purpose of this article is to provide specific details about the translation available by Edwin and Willa Muir, hereinafter the "Muir translations".
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[edit] History of translation
In 1930 Willa and Edwin Muir translated the First German edition of The Castle as it was compiled by Max Brod. It was published by Secker & Warburg in England and Alfred A. Knopf in the United States.
1941 edition was the edition that fed the Kafka post-war craze. The 1941 edition included a homage by Thomas Mann.
In 1954 the "Definitive" edition was published and included additional sections Brod had added to the Schocken Definitive German edition. The new sections were translated by Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser. Some edits were made in the Muir text namely the changes were "Town Council" to "Village Council" , "Superintendent" to "Mayor", "Clients" to "Applicants" [1].
The 1994 edition, the current publication, contains a preface by Irving Howe.
[edit] Table of Contents
The table of contents is provided as an illustration of the differences between translations and a guide to the contents in order to help the reader understand the differences.
- Publisher's Note
- Introduction by Irving Howe
- Homage By Thomas Mann
- The Castle
- Chapters are all numbered (i.e. The First Chapter, etc.) below are specific notes on the chapters where needed
- The Thirteenth Chapter: The seventh paragraph was added based on the German Definitive edition.
- The Fourteenth Chapter: The first paragraph was lengthen based on the German Definitive edition.
- The Fifteenth Chapter: Broken into subchapters
- Fifteenth Chapter
- Amalia's Secret
- Amalia's Punishment
- Petitions
- Olga's Plans
- The Eighteenth Chapter: This chapter was the end of the novel in the 1930 edition. The 1954, Definitive edition, added the remainder of chapter 18 and the complete chapters 19 and 20.
- Appendix
- Continuation of the manuscript: Contains two versions to the end of the manuscript. The first appears to be the generally accepted conclusion. It ends midsentence preparing for another potential monologue "...it was difficult to understand her, but she said,"
- Another version of the opening paragraphs
- Fragments: The fragments and deleted sections of Kafka add significant insight into his writing. The fragments include:
- A follow-on discussion about K.'s chance meeting with Brügle. Not in K's presence.
- A closing seem to leaving the mayor's office
- An additional paragraph for K.'s first meeting with the Barnabases
- A paragraph that discusses the Frieda looking on to Pepi and K. Not in K's presence.
- Passages Deleted by the Author: Nearly thirty deleted sections (52 pages) of text from the handwritten manuscript. This text is footnoted in the body of the novel and page number cross-referenced back, allowing the reader to read them with the novel of afterwards, with equal ease.
[edit] Noteworthy Translation Differences
[edit] Spiritual Tone
Notable in the translations are a few words of significance.
The Muir translations make use of wording that is often considered "spiritual" in nature. In one notable example, the Muirs translate the description of the castle as "soaring unfalteringly" where Harman uses "tapered decisively".[2] Furthermore, the word "illusory" is used from the opening paragraph forward. Some critics note this as further evidence of the bias in the translation leaning toward a mystical interpretation.[3]
[edit] General Flow
The differences become obvious if the reader reads the editions in parallel. To illustrate the opening paragraph of the Muir edition is:
- "It was late in the evening when K. arrived. The village was deep in snow. The castle was hidden veiled in mist and darkness, nor was there even a glimmer of light to show the castle was there. On the wooden bridge leading from the main road to the village, K. stood for a long time gazing into the illusory emptiness above him."
Juxtaposed to later translations:
- Harman's:
- "It was late evening when K arrived. The village lay under deep snow. There was no sign of the castle hill, fog and darkness surrounded it, not even the faintest gleam of light suggested the large Castle. K. stood a long time on the wooden bridge that leads to from the main road to the village, gazing upward into the seeming emptiness."
- Underwood's:
- "It was late evening when K. arrived. The village lay deep in snow. Nothing could be seen of Castle Hill, it was wrapped in mist and darkness, not a glimmer of light hinted at the presence of the great castle. K. stood for a long while on the wooden bridge that led from the main road to the village, gazing up into the seeming emptiness."
[edit] Examples of Other Wording
In the Muir editions, the conversation at the Mayor's office repeatedly refers to the castle's officials and their processes as "efficient". Reading this in the context of the set of gyrations between the village, multiple departments inside the castle and skepticism of the official Sordini, one might think the chapter is nothing but satire. In the Harman edition the word "precision" is used instead removes the comical nature to the conversation (note: the Mayor is the "village council chairman" in the Harman translation).
[edit] Release details
- 1930, UK, Secker & Warburg
- 1930, USA, Alfred A. Knopf
- 1954, USA Knopf, LOCN: 54005972, March 1954, Hardcover 481pp
- 1994, USA, Knopf Publishing, ISBN 0-8052-1039-3; Paperback, 528pp
[edit] Sources, references, external links, quotations
Footnotes:
- ^ The Castle, Alfred A. Knopf, 1968, New York, New York, Publisher's note page vii
- ^ The Castle, Mark Harman, 1998, Schocken Books, New York, New York, Translator's Preface, page xvii
- ^ "Franz Kafka & the trip to Spindemuhle", Eric Ormsby, The New Criterion, Nov 1998, (http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/17/nov98/ormsby.htm)
