Help in Translation of “zu+participle” Construction

Question

I'm reading a novel by Franz Kafka called "die Verwandlung", and I need a help in translating a part of a sentence. Here is the sentence:

Sie wissen auch sehr wohl, daß der Reisende, der fast das ganze Jahr außerhalb des Geschäfts ist, so leicht ein Opfer von Klatschereien, Zufälligkeiten und grundlosen Beschwerden werden kann, gegen die sich zu wehren ihm ganz unmöglich ist, da er von ihnen meistens gar nichts erfährt und nur dann, wenn er erschöpft eine Reise beendet hat, zu Hause die schlimmen, auf ihre Ursachen hin nicht mehr zu durchschauenden Folgen am eigenen Leibe zu spüren bekommt.

The part I found difficult to understand is:

zu Hause die schlimmen, auf ihre Ursachen hin nicht mehr zu durchschauenden Folgen am eigenen Leibe zu spüren bekommt.

I have already checked the translation from an English edition (as below), but I couldn't relate it with the German part!

and gets to feel in his own body at home the nasty consequences, which can't be thoroughly explored back to their origins.

Are "schlimmen" and "auf ihre Ursachen hin nicht mehr zu durchschauenden" considered as adjectives to "Folgen" or there is a point I miss here?

Answer 1

Let's think about etwas zu spüren bekommen first. That is a fixed phrase you can find explained in better dictionaries as to feel the (full) force of something.

Er bekommt die Folgen zu spüren.

He feels the full force of the consequences.

He get to feel the full force of the consequences.

As usual in German, Präsens conveys both present and future.

(That is one of the seldom cases bekommen in German means a similar thing as to become in English, and just in this case, we translate it to get. Confusing.)

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The part

die schlimmen, auf ihre Ursachen hin nicht mehr zu durchschauenden Folgen

is one huge accusative object to … zu spüren bekommt.

That zu+Partizip I construction is called Gerundiv (or Gerundivum, not: Gerundium) or modales Partizip (not: Modalpartikel) in German and means the same as a modal expression, in this case using können. The alternative is using a relative clause:

Er spürt die schlimmen Folgen, deren Ursachen er nicht mehr durchschauen kann.

Such relative clauses are pointing a finger to the explained fact, and Kafka doesn't like this. He just drops that information as he passes by, with no special emphasis.

You have to get used to such complicated objects, especially when reading literature, and in particular with Kafka.

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EDIT: There is another question about auf ihre Ursachen hin which becomes deren Ursachen in my relative clause alternative.

This is another complication. The literal relative clause had to be

Er spürt die schlimmen Folgen, die er nicht mehr auf ihre Ursachen hin durchschauen kann.

But no one but Kafka writes or even talks like this. It's obvious durchschauen relates both to die schlimmen Folgen and ihre Ursachen.

Er durchschaut die Folgen auf ihre Ursachen hin. (super-exact kafkaesk style)

Er durchschaut die Ursachen. (preferred)

Answer 2

Yes, "schlimmen" and "zu durchschauenden" are two parallel adjectives, both modifying "Folgen". The difficulty may be with the complicated construction involving "durchschauen".

The construction "zu <verb>ende <noun>" corresponds to "a <noun> which is hard to <verb>". "Nicht mehr" is a two-word adverbial expression modifying "durchschauende" - this may be difficult because the corresponding English construction cannot take this kind of modifier. Finally, "auf ... hin" is a circumposition: it works like a preposition but uses function words on both sides of the argument. All this makes for a dense construction that is hard to parse for a language learner (and not exactly easy for native speakers either).