The Chinese language character for “tae” is displayed on this illustration from The Korea Instances.
Editor’s word
“Laughing By Historical past” is a column that explores the roots of Korean humor by means of the joke e-book “Kkalkkal Useum,” initially revealed in 1916.
The joke I’m translating right now mixes a literary sensibility with an earthy and crude humorousness. The setup is that three ladies are anticipated to have fun their father-in-law’s upcoming birthday by miming the shapes of Chinese language characters (additionally referred to as sinographs, or “hanja” in Korean) with their our bodies.
Chinese language characters had been launched to Korea by at the very least the second century B.C.E. and established because the writing system used for presidency, regulation and schooling throughout the Three Kingdoms Interval (which lasted from the primary century B.C.E. by means of the seventh century C.E.). Though the Korean writing system, Hangul, was developed and promulgated throughout the fifteenth century, it was restricted in software and Chinese language characters retained wider use and better cultural cache till the twentieth century.
On this scene, every of the daughters-in-law has to decide on a Chinese language character to mime. The primary makes the form of the character “ho” (好), which means “good” (an ideograph of a girl and youngster). The second makes the form of the character “an” (安), which means “peace,” by sporting a wide-brimmed hat (though the ideograph is definitely a girl beneath a roof). The third stands along with her legs and arms outstretched to mime the character “tae” (太), which suggests “nice.” However the father-in-law jokes that with no “dot” in between her legs, the character she’s truly making the form of is “dae” (大), which means “huge.” The lacking dot in between her legs, in fact, is a penis; this complete elaborate setup in the end arrives at a dick joke.
There’s No Dot within the Center, So That Character Is ‘Dae,’ Not ‘Tae!’
A major minister had three sons who all married early, so he additionally had three daughters-in-law. Every morning they greeted their parents-in-law. A number of days earlier than the prime minister’s birthday, he advised them, “On my birthday, you three must have fun me. Depict a hanja character to congratulate me with.”
When the massive day got here, the eldest son’s spouse approached him holding her son in her arms and stated, “Here’s a lady holding her son in her arms. I’m exhibiting you the character ‘ho,’ which means ‘good.’”
The second daughter-in-law wore a gat (a wide-brimmed horsehair hat) and stated, “Here’s a lady sporting a gat. I’m exhibiting you the character ‘an,’ for ‘peace.’”
It appeared like the opposite two had already taken all the nice concepts for characters, and there have been none left. However after the youngest daughter-in-law thought for some time, she stood along with her legs and arms unfold as vast as she might and stated, “I’m exhibiting you the character ‘tae,’ which suggests ‘nice peace.’”
The daddy-in-law replied, “There’s no dot within the center, so as an alternative of ‘tae,’ that makes it ‘dae,’ which means ‘huge!’”
G.S. Hand is a graduate of the Translation Academy at LTI Korea and winner of the Fiction Grand Prize of the 53rd Fashionable Korean Literature Translation Awards, and has a grasp’s diploma in Fashionable Korean Literature from Korea College. He lives in Seoul.
