題知らず

題知らず

Japanese

Examples

905–914, Kokin Wakashū (book 1, poem 3) よみ人しらず　題しらず (yomibito shirazu, dai shirazu, ”Anonymous, topic unknown”) 春霞たてるやいづこみよしののよしのの山に雪はふりつつ haru kasumi tateru ya izuko mi-Yoshino no Yoshino-no-yama ni yuki wa furitsutsu Where are the promised mists of spring? In Yoshino, fair hills of Yoshino, snow falling still.[1] 905–914, Kokin Wakashū (book 19, poem 1065) 千里　題しらず (Chisato, dai shirazu, ”by Chisato, topic unknown”) 白雪の友にわが身はふりぬれど心は消えぬ物にぞありける shirayuki no tomo ni waga mi wa furinuredo kokoro wa kienu mono ni zo arikeru With the falling snows, old age, too, has descended upon my body, but my heart―ah, that remains unextinguishably young![2]

Kanji in this term
題	知
だい Grade: 3	し Grade: 2
goon	kun’yomi

Alternative forms

• 題不知

Etymology

Literally “topic unknown”.

Some scholars actually translate this as “circumstances unknown”.[3]

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) だいし​らず [dàí shíꜜràzù] (Nakadaka – [3])[4]
• IPA^(key): [da̠i ɕiɾa̠zɨᵝ]

Noun

題(だい)知(し)らず • (dai shirazu) 

1. (poetry) a 詞書 (kotobagaki, “explanatory note”) stating that the topic, theme, or occasion of a selected waka poem is unknown; also, the poem with the unknown topic, theme, or occasion

See also

• 読人(よみびと)知(し)らず, 詠人(よみびと)知(し)らず (yomibito shirazu, “poet unknown/anonymous”)

References

1. Haruo Shirane (2012) Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600 (Translations from the Asian Classics), abridged edition, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 93
2. Helen Craig McCullough (1985) Brocade by Night: Kokin Wakashū and the Court Style in Japanese Classical Poetry, Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 379
3. Edwin A. Cranston (1993) A Waka Anthology, volume two: Grasses of remembrance, part A, Stanford University Press, →ISBN, pages 15-16
4. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN