This essay focuses on the literary relationship between Primo Levi and Franz Kafka. Starting from Levi's own translation of Kafka's The Trial in 1983, the analysis treats Levi's consideration of Kafka's ideas and works through different interpretative lenses. After exploring Levi's ideas on the act of translating as a process of adaptation, the essay considers the centrality of the idea of communication in and through writing for Levi. Literature serves a higher aim; namely, that of communicating with readers. The essay concludes by recognizing the significance of the concept of nonrationality in Levi's interpretation of Kafka, an idea that Levi intimately links to poetry.

With these words Primo Levi ends his article “Kafka with the Knife in the Heart,” published in La Stampa on June 5, 1983, in which Levi reflects on his recently completed translation of Kafka's The Trial (Der Prozess, 1925). In this short, dense sentence we understand how Levi is intimately involved with Kafka's deepest ideas on the destiny of Josef K. as a representative of all humanity. In this paper, I will highlight the ways in which Levi, throughout his translation of The Trial, compares his own writing and ideas to those of Kafka. Basing my analysis on Levi's essays, I will explore his relationship with Kafka by considering three different aspects: first, Levi's view on the significance of translation as a process; second, the importance of communication and rationality for Levi; and third, the role of poetry in Levi's understanding of Kafka. Finally, I will further define the relationship between Levi and Kafka by taking into account Levi's considerations on Thomas Mann and Paul Celan.

The obvious point of departure in the Levi-Kafka relationship is Levi's translation of The Trial, commissioned by Einaudi in 1983. In the translator's note at the end of Il Processo (The Trial), Levi writes: “I do not believe that Kafka is very similar to me.” These words testify less to a difference in ideas than to a different attitude toward describing the world in which they live.