Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) published little in his lifetime and instructed his friend Max Brod to burn the rest; Brod refused, which is why The Trial and The Castle exist. The Metamorphosis (1915) is the work he did publish, and its first sentence is among the most translated in literature — the creature Gregor becomes is called vermin, insect, cockroach or bug depending on the translator, because Kafka’s German word names no species at all. Quotes here name the translation used.