42287


In _Koe no Katachi_ , volume 1, chapter 2, page 37, first panel, Ishida said
that.

> Because her ears don't have "H"

What does Ishida mean by that? While his teacher did laugh too. What's funny
with that joke?

In Indonesian version, he said (I have translated it to English using Google
translate)

> Because Her ears hadn't been written with the sutra

The Sutra in this context refers to Buddha or Hindu religion.

What's with the translation? Is the Licensed Indonesia translation not the
true sentence? Which one is the correct sentence?

![Koe no Katachi chapter 2](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MHpKO.jpg)


CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-12T04:12:07.377
42284
2017-11-13T14:12:40.157
2017-11-13T14:12:40.157
35019
35019
question
tropes koe-no-katachi
Where is the joke that Ishida said came from?


As the girl in the third panel says, she can't `'h'ear`. `ear` with the letter
`h` in front of it spells `h + ear = hear`.

As to what the original Japanese joke was? Probably a similar joke about her.
Often times, translations will change jokes if they don't make sense in the
translated language- either because it's a pun in the original, or because it
references something particular to that culture.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-12T04:25:15.180
42285
2017-09-12T04:30:32.573
2017-09-12T04:30:32.573
26389
26389
42284
answer


Here is the original page in Japanese:

[![Vol 1, page
102](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wAcUt.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wAcUt.png)

> **Panel 1**  
>  耳【みみ】にお経【きょう】書き【かき】忘れ【わすれ】たんだよ！  
>  (Her ears hadn't been written with the sutra!)
>
> **Panel 3**  
>  耳【みみ】なし芳一【ほういち】？  
>  (Hoichi the Earless?)

As hinted in the 3rd panel, it's referring to the story of [Hoichi the
Earless](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoichi_the_Earless). The relevant
summary:

> Realizing that Hoichi had been bewitched by ghosts, the priest vowed to save
> his friend from further trickery. **He painted Hoichi's body with the kanji
> characters of the Heart Sutra** for protection and instructed him to remain
> silent and motionless when he is called upon by his ghostly audience. That
> evening the samurai called for Hoichi as before, and was angered when he
> received no response. **The ghostly samurai approached Hoichi but was unable
> to see anything but his ears. The sutra had rendered the rest of Hoichi's
> body invisible**. Attempting to comply with his orders, **the samurai ripped
> Hoichi's ears off** as proof that they had been the only portion of the lute
> player that was available.
>
> After the ghostly retainer had left, Hoichi was still too frightened to
> react, despite the blood gushing from the wounds on his head. When the
> priest returned, **he realized in dismay that he had neglected to write the
> sutra on Hoichi's ears** , which had left them vulnerable to the spirit.
> Despite his injury, Hoichi's ordeal had freed him from the spirit's power,
> and he went on to recover from his wounds and become a famous musician.
>
> (Emphasis mine)

* * *

I could see that the Indonesian version tried to be faithful with the
translation, but unless they also provided a hint about this story, then
unfortunately the joke got lost in translation.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-12T06:45:27.280
42287
2017-09-12T06:55:21.787
2020-06-17T09:17:53.303
-1
2516
42284
answer