The forgotten Scots who gave Kafka his voice

2 days ago

Edwin and Willa Muir, Scottish translators, were the primary English translators of Franz Kafka's works for half a century, starting with 'The Castle' in 1929 and 'Metamorphosis' in 1933.
Willa Muir, a classicist, was the finer linguist, but both contributed equally, with Edwin focusing on creative aspects; they worked from Max Brod's edited texts and gave Kafka a fluent, formal voice in English, though later translators criticized their versions as too domesticated.
Despite facing poverty, prejudice, and being overlooked by academia, the Muirs introduced Kafka to the Anglosphere, but their contributions are largely ignored in Maïa Hruska's book 'Kafkaesque', which focuses on other translators and erases their role in Kafka's global reception.

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