This article tries to unveil one of the great enigmas of Kafka studies, namely, the identity of the author of the first translation of The Metamorphosis into a foreign language. Indeed, in 1925 the Revista de Occidente published a Spanish version of Kafka’s famous novella, a translation that was 3 years ahead of the first French version and 12 years ahead of the first English version. The author of this translation, which helped to make Kafka’s work known throughout Europe and also in America, has remained unknown until now, despite the most diverse attributions, from Margarita Nelken to Jorge Luis Borges. We try to demonstrate, through solid contextual and textual arguments, that the only possible author of this pioneering translation, still valid today, is the Galician Ramón María Tenreiro.
The author discusses the relationship between two writers, representatives of literature at the turn of the twentieth century, seen as a dialogue both human and intercontinental. The Spaniard Valle-Inclán and the Nicaraguan Darío developed the inheritance of late Romanticism and decadence, they were formed during the epoch of symbolism and French parnasism, and participated in the constitution of Hispanic modernism. The essay offers a commentary on several texts they dedicated to each other, which create an authentic intercultural dialogue.
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