Franz Kafka frequently wrote about man's struggles with life, bureaucracy and the very problems he invented for himself.

No doubt, writing a 12-inch article on a 40-minute lecture about Kafka is a little like being one of Kafka's own struggling characters.

But Mark Harman, an Elizabethtown College professor of German and English and a frequent translator of Kafka's work, does make it sound easy.

On Tuesday, at Franklin & Marshall College's new Klehr Center for Jewish Life, Harman discussed his new translation of Kafka's great American novel, "Amerika." Released just two weeks ago under the more pointed title, "Amerika: The Missing Person," Harman said his translation recovers the nuances, humor and peculiarity of language that have been compromised in other translations of Kafka.

Harman said Kafka directed his close friend, Max Brod, to destroy "Amerika" and many of his other unpublished manuscripts up-on Kafka's death from tuberculosis in 1924.

Three years later, "Amerika" was first published in Germany.

Thanks to high school lit classes, Kafka is perhaps best known for his 1915 novella, "The Metamorphosis," about a traveling salesman who wakes to find himself transforming into an insect. And here's where Harman's specialty comes into play — Harman said a more literal translation of Kafka's own words actually finds the main character becoming an unspecified vermin, not an insect.

During Harman's Tuesday lecture, he said a lot is lost in Kafka translations, including the German-speaking author's sense of humor.

"People don't often hear humor in his stories because the stories seem to be so dark," he said. "But when he read them aloud, he used to break out laughing."

Harman discussed Prague-born Kafka's complicated relationship with the United States — a land Harman said he viewed as "a potential refuge from his 'little mother with claws,' as (Kafka) liked to call Prague."

Kafka never set foot in the United States, and yet he spent years writing "Amerika." And in the very first paragraph, Kafka makes an error when describing his subject's first glimpse of New York City's Statue of Liberty: "The arm with the sword now reached aloft, and about her figure blew the free winds."

In later printings of "Amerika," other mistakes were corrected, but Lady Liberty still held a sword rather than a torch in Kafka's vision.

Earlier translators suspected Kafka simply made an error because he'd never been to America. Harman suggests the opposite — that Kafka's understanding of America was so tuned in, the torch was his own slicing commentary.

"Kafka had a strong connection with America," Harman said Tuesday. "When ('Amerika') came out, people said, 'Oh, it's just fantasy. What the hell would he know about this place?' Well, maybe it was just (Kafka's) instinct about America."

Harman discussed the pitfalls of translating a great piece of literature. He said a translator must dig deep, through layers of language, to distill comic intent on the author's part. And calls must be made — did Kafka's use of the word "poor" mean financially needy or was he invoking the emotional sympathy of the term?

"A literary translator is like a performer," Harman said. "Think of all those classical musicians you hear on the radio talking about their work. (Translation) can't be objective. That's a recipe for clunkiness."

Instead, Harman, a Dublin native, takes a wholly different approach, allowing the author's voice to speak, or even misspeak, in translation.

As in the case of "poor":

"I try not to make a decision if Kafka didn't make a decision," Harman said. "If there's a blemish, a hiccup or if the author fell asleep, I leave it. That's part of the voice."

E-mail: slindt@lnpnews.com