Hi guys! I’m reading Three Assassins by Kotaro Isaka, translated to English. Near the beginning of the book, The Whale is chatting with one of his victims about the book Crime and Punishment. The victim, under pressure, quips that (paraphrasing) “if you rearrange the title it makes a pun: Pun and Crimishment.”
This joke, the delivery, the context, is so perfect it delivered a killing blow to my funny bone and I am dying to know if it’s a product of the translation or if it’s original to the Japanese. If anyone has read the original or has access to a copy please, I need the context!
by viveleramen_
1 comment
> ‘You know if you rearrange the title it makes a pun – Pun and Crimishment.’
「その本って、題名を逆さに読むと、『唾と蜜』になるんですよ」
The joke is totally different in Japanese, but I think the translator did a good job with what they’re working with.
In Japanese, the novel Crime and Punishment is called 罪と罰. This is pronounced (breaking up the syllables here for readability), “tsu-mi to ba-tsu”. This is basically a direct translation of the title.
In the Japanese, he says to flip it around to hear the joke. That is, say it, “tsu-ba to mi-tsu”. This turns it into 唾と蜜, or “Spit and Honey.”
My translation:
> As for that book, if you read the title backwards, it becomes “Spit and Honey”
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