The only language I know with any fluency is English. I want to read The Trial by Franz Kafka. The Trial was written in German and if I read an English translation I feel I am not really reading Kafka. Am i the only one who feels this way? Does it even matter?
It’s understandable. You want to read the work as to the author intended.
I’d say it matters from work to work. Some like “La Horde du Contrevent” translations apparently can’t capture all the neoligisms and subtlety of the original. Something like Kafka relies less on the specific words usually and more the path of the story and ideas and so reading a translation is just fine.