English can say “monstrous” and “vermin.” It cannot keep two un- words, and “insect” draws the creature Kafka would not have drawn.
Franz Kafka, Die Verwandlung (1915). In the sentence the adjective is inflected: zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer.
Where the line breaks
Alignment of ungeheueres Ungeziefer into 3 lanes. Arrives, thins, and breaks are written in each cell. The same information is in the text alternative below.
DEParts
un-Negative prefix
geheuerStem of the adjective
UngezieferCategory noun
DESourceungeheueres Ungeziefer
un-Source
geheuerSource
UngezieferSource
ENEnglishPublished translationgigantic insect
—BreaksConnotation
giganticBreaksConnotation
insectBreaksConnotation
Published translation. Willa and Edwin Muir, 1933. The line generations of English readers met first.
ENEnglishPublished translationmonstrous vermin
—ThinsConnotation
monstrousThinsConnotation
verminThinsConnotation
Published translation. Stanley Corngold, 1972.
ENEnglishPublished translationsome sort of monstrous insect
—ThinsConnotation
monstrousThinsConnotation
some sort of insectThinsConnotation
Published translation. Susan Bernofsky, 2014. She adds “some sort of” to blur the specificity of “insect.”
Text alternative
English “gigantic insect” (published translation): breaks: connotation. English “monstrous vermin” (published translation): thins: connotation. English “some sort of monstrous insect” (published translation): thins: connotation.
un-Negative prefix
ungeheuer is morphologically un- + geheuer. geheuer is a living word: nicht geheuer means uncanny. The prefix is audible, not only etymological.
What happens to “un-” in each lane
Lane
Form
Status
Break
What happens
English
—
Breaks
Connotation
No negative prefix. “Gigantic” is only size.
English
—
Thins
Connotation
“Monstrous” carries the force and drops the audible un-.
English
—
Thins
Connotation
The prefix is still not there.
geheuerStem of the adjective
As a whole, ungeheuer means monstrous or immense. The stem ties it, for a German speaker, to the family of geheuer / heimlich, what is canny and of the home.
What happens to “geheuer” in each lane
Lane
Form
Status
Break
What happens
English
gigantic
Breaks
Connotation
Size without the monstrous, and without the link to geheuer.
English
monstrous
Thins
Connotation
The sense of ungeheuer, without the stem.
English
monstrous
Thins
Connotation
The adjective’s force, without un- + geheuer.
UngezieferCategory noun
A class of unclean creepy things, not a species. It is itself an un- noun. The standard etymology, which Susan Bernofsky reports, derives it from a negation of Old High German zebar, a sacrificial animal: a creature unfit for sacrifice. A reader in 1915 need not have heard that history. They did hear “vermin,” not “beetle.”
What happens to “Ungeziefer” in each lane
Lane
Form
Status
Break
What happens
English
insect
Breaks
Connotation
A biological class. Kafka’s noun refuses a species. He asked his publisher that the insect not be drawn on the cover.
English
vermin
Thins
Connotation
Closer than insect. Bernofsky notes that English vermin leans toward rodents, while Ungeziefer leans toward creeping things.
English
some sort of insect
Thins
Connotation
“Some sort of” is a repair, undoing the species-picture “insect” would otherwise draw. The class word Ungeziefer needed no repair.
The joint
The opening sentence turns Gregor Samsa into einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer. The plate uses the citation form ungeheueres Ungeziefer, which is how the phrase is named when it is not inflected after einem. Both words wear un-. The first is a common adjective, monstrous or huge, and it is still audibly related to geheuer. The second is a category of nasty creeping life, not a beetle and not a cockroach.
The Muir translation, “gigantic insect,” was the doorway for English readers. “Gigantic” keeps only bulk. “Insect” hands the reader a class, and invites a picture. Kafka wrote to his publisher about the cover: the insect was not to be drawn. The wording and the instruction agree. The creature stays a word.
Corngold’s “monstrous vermin” gives the category back, with a slant Bernofsky points out: English vermin tends to mean rodents. Her own “some sort of monstrous insect” keeps “insect” and then blurs it. The hedge is honest work. It is also a symptom. German did not need “some sort of,” because Ungeziefer was already unspecific.
The sacrificial-animal etymology is real as etymology. It is marked uncertain as a meaning Kafka’s first readers retrieved. What those readers could hear without a dictionary was the paired un-, and a noun that is not a species.
Why this break matters to a reader
A reader told that Gregor is a gigantic insect has been given a body. The German sentence gives them a category and then, by Kafka’s own wish for the jacket, refuses the drawing. The horror of the novella depends on the creature remaining a form of words. Specify it, and the reader starts doing the entomology the text declines.