Diction - each translation provides a different description of Gregor Samsa's transformation; a gigantic insect, a giant bug, an enormous bug, and a monstrous vermin. Each of these serves to create a different image in the reader's mind.
Syntax - Each of the sentences is laid out differently the way it is read. Three of the four sentences start out by identifying Gregor Samsa as the character, showing the most important part of the sentence, while the final sentence begins with describing the setting, "one morning". The length of the sentences influences how they appear to the reader as well, some sentences are shorter than others, which makes them have a different impact on the reader, such as the shortest sentence is the most direct, and has more of a hostile tone than longer sentences.
Imagery/Details - Each translation highlights different details in order to create different imagery for the reader. The translations use different words to describe the dreams that Gregor had, like uneasy, troubled, or agitated. By tweaking the description of either Gregor or his actions, the different translations slightly alter the percieved personality of the character.
Structure - The first translation is focused on the actions taking place;"As Gregor Samsa awoke...", "he found himself...", which makes the passage less sedentary and more active. The second translation is the shortest and most direct, which changes the author's tone from the other translations. The third translation creates an atmosphere that the rest of the story will follow. This translation is about setting the stage, rather than explaining a character or describing actions. The fourth translation is the most detailed and has the most imagery. This translation is about creating an image in the reader's mind, and make them visualize the text.
Each of the different translations adds a different context to the message and alters the reader's interpretation slightly. The diction of each passage focuses on different elements of literature, and this in turn shifts the reader's focus. By focusing on verbs, a translation makes the passage seem like an account of events, whereas by focusing on adjectives and descriptors the passage seems more like a vivid description of a scene. Punctuation also varies between each of the translations. By including more commas, the fourth translation forces the reader to take more time while reading and appreciate the details more, rather than the second translation which includes no commas and is much more straightforward and direct.
The first and third translations are the most effective in my opinion. Both the second and the fourth translations alter a key detail of the text, which drastically changes the passage. The second translation changes the main character's name from Gregor to Gregory and removes most of the details as well, which strips the passage of its tone and makes it much more bland. The fourth translation says that Gregor transforms into "a monstrous vermin" rather than a bug or insect as the other translations say. This alters the reader's mental image of the text, since the most commonly associated animal with the word vermin is a rat, not an insect. I think the first translation is the most effective, because it has more emphasis on the actions than any other translation, which engages the reader by being active, instead of a passive description of a man in bed.
The variety between all of these translations of a single line highlights the greatest difficulty in analyzing translated texts. Whomever translated the text inadvertently added some of their own perspective and interpretation, which affects how the reader reacts to the passages. This was only a single line, but the amount of differences between them shows that an entire story translated by two different people can have wildly different end products, despite being based on the same original text, because of the interpreter's personal choices in how they present the words.
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