Soramimi (空耳?, "mishearing; (feigned) deafness", literally "air ear") or soramimi kashi (空耳歌詞?, misheard lyrics); is a Japanese term for homophonic translation of song lyrics, that is, interpreting lyrics in one language as similar-sounding lyrics in another language. A bilingual soramimi word play contrasts with a monolingual mondegreen or homophonic transformation, and is usually caused by pareidolia. Soramimi transcription is also commonly used in animutations for comic effect.
An example would be the Moldovan band O-Zone's song "Dragostea Din Tei", known on the web as the Numa Numa song. The refrain of the original song (in Romanian) is:
A soramimi version, from the Japanese Flash animation Maiyahi, translates these words as:
Japanese comedian Tamori has had a long-running "Soramimi Hour" segment on his TV program Tamori Club, where he and his co-host watch mini-skits based on soramimi kashi submitted by the audience.