Kurenai no susobiku michi o naka ni okite ware wa kayowamu kimi ka kimasamu

紅の裾引く道を中に置きて
我れは通はむ君か来まさむ

Roma-ji: Kurenai no susobiku michi o naka ni okite ware wa kayowamu kimi ka kimasamu
English Translation: With the road between,
where I would trail
my crimson skirt hems,
shall I be the one to go,
or will you come to me
Meaning: With the road between us where I would trail my crimson skirts, shall I go to you, or will you come to me?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2655

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Facing the road that lies between them, the speaker asks whether she should trail her crimson skirts and go to him, or whether he will come: this is a woman's poem of longing for a meeting. Picturing herself trailing a vivid crimson skirt, it shows a love strong enough that she would go to him herself.
The original text notes variant readings: "one version has 'the river that soaks my skirts'" and "another says 'shall I wait and wait.'" In the variants a river wetting the hem lies between them, and the last line becomes "shall I wait and wait," but here the main text, "susobiku michi o" and "kimi ka kimasamu," is followed. The main text's fourth line reads "ware wa kayowamu," which does not match "ware ka kayowamu" in the kana reading line; here the main text is followed. After the poems on horses, this poem speaks through the road between lovers.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "kurenai no": "crimson," coloring the skirt of the next line and showing the vivid hue of a woman's garment.
Second line, "susobiku michi o": "the road where I trail my skirts," picturing a woman walking the road herself.
Third line, "naka ni okite": "placing it between us." The line has six syllables, one more than usual, and makes the road a divide between them.
Fourth line, "ware wa kayowamu": "I will go to you." "Mu" expresses intention and pairs with the next line.
Fifth line, "kimi ka kimasamu": "or will you come?" The binding particle "ka" asks the question, closing with the honorific "masu" and the conjectural "mu."
Source: Manyoshu
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