Kurenai no furiidetsutsu naku namida ni wa tamoto nomi koso iro masarikere - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

紅のふりいでつつ泣く涙には
袂のみこそ色まさりけれ

Roma-ji: Kurenai no furiidetsutsu naku namida ni wa tamoto nomi koso iro masarikere
English Translation: Like crimson dye
shaken out, I sob and wail,
and with my tears,
it is only my sleeves
whose color deepens so.
Meaning: Like crimson dye shaken out into water, I cry my heart out, and my tears only make my sleeves grow ever deeper in red.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 598

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet says that just as crimson dye is shaken out into water to dye cloth, his tears, shed as he cries with all his voice, only deepen the crimson of his sleeves. Drawing on the idea that tears shed in the extremity of grief become tears of blood and turn crimson, furiide overlays a dyeing term with crying one's voice out. There is the lament that the more he weeps, the deeper the color of his sleeves grows, yet the beloved's heart does not move at all.
Ki no Tsurayuki was a poet of the early Heian period, the son of Ki no Mochiyuki. He was the leading compiler of the Kokinshū and wrote its Japanese preface. He served as Governor of Tosa and is also known as the author of the Tosa Diary. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

First line, "kurenai no": kurenai is a vivid red dye taken from safflower, leading into furiide in the second line.
Second line, "furiidetsutsu naku": furiizu is a pun on shaking safflower dye out into water to dye cloth and crying one's voice out. Tsutsu expresses repetition, weeping again and again. The line has eight syllables, one more than the norm.
Third line, "namida ni wa": "by the tears I weep crying my voice out."
Fourth line, "tamoto nomi koso": the binding particle koso pairs with kere in the final line. Nomi stresses "only my sleeves," implying that the beloved's heart does not change.
Fifth line, "iro masarikere": masaru means for the color to deepen, and kere is the perfective form resolving koso. The next poem, 599, also sings of tears turning crimson, so two poems on the color of tears stand side by side.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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