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 irks me too.
However, most popular books written in languages other than English have a broad array of translations. People will usually provide insight into which translation is the most faithful to the prose of the original.