Yoso nomi ni mitsutsu koinamu kurenai no suetsumuhana no iro ni idezu tomo

外のみに見つつ恋ひなむ紅の
末摘花の色に出でずとも

Roma-ji: Yoso nomi ni mitsutsu koinamu kurenai no suetsumuhana no iro ni idezu tomo
English Translation: Only from afar
watching, I will go on loving;
like the crimson dye
from the safflower's scarlet bloom,
though it may not show its hue.
Meaning: I will go on loving you, watching only from afar—even if, unlike the crimson safflower, my love never shows its color.
Commentary: Book Ten Summer Love Poems 1993

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love Expressed Through Flowers"
This poem resolves to go on loving while watching from afar, even without showing one's feelings as vividly as the crimson safflower, and it closes the group on flowers. Whereas the preceding poem wished to bring a hidden love into the open, this one resolves to keep loving without showing it, so the two poems form a pair around hidden love.

The first line, "yoso nomi ni," means only from a distance.
In the second line, "mitsutsu koinamu," "na" is emphatic and "mu" expresses intention; the poem breaks here.
The third line, "kurenai no," of crimson, refers to the color of safflower.
The fourth line, "suetsumuhana," is another name for safflower, from plucking the flowers at the tips of the stems.
The last line, "iro ni idezu tomo," though it does not show, uses the concessive "tomo," and by inversion closes with the manner of love.
Source: Manyoshu
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