Kurenai no hana ni shi araba koromode ni sometsuke mochite yukubeku omōyu

紅の花にしあらば衣手に
染め付け持ちて行くべく思ほゆ

Roma-ji: Kurenai no hana ni shi araba koromode ni sometsuke mochite yukubeku omōyu
English Translation: If you were a flower
of the crimson safflower,
upon my sleeve
I would dye you and hold you fast,
so I feel, and take you with me
Meaning: If you were a crimson safflower, I feel I would dye you into my sleeve and carry you with me wherever I go.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2827

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Questions and Answers"
If the beloved were a crimson safflower, the speaker would dye its color into a sleeve and carry it everywhere. Though on the point of going away, the speaker entrusts to the vivid hue of safflower dye the wish never to let the beloved leave his side.
By the left note "the two poems above," this is the answer paired with the preceding poem, 2826. To that poem's dread of a bond broken and a parting, it replies with the wish to keep the beloved close as the color of a sleeve, even when apart.
The next poem, 2828, also begins with "kurenai no" and opens the category of metaphorical poems with a robe dyed deep crimson. The close of the exchange poems and the start of the metaphorical poems are linked by the same material, a garment dyed crimson.
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": "of crimson," meaning the safflower, the source of a vivid red dye, to which the beloved is likened. The next poem opens with the same "kurenai no."
Second line, "hana ni shi araba": "if you were a flower." "Shi" is an emphatic particle, and "araba," the irrealis form with "ba," states a supposition, wishing while knowing the wish cannot be.
Third line, "koromode ni": "on my sleeve." The sleeve is the thing closest to the body, always at one's side.
Fourth line, "sometsuke mochite": "dyeing it in and keeping it." Dyeing with safflower is overlaid with the wish to keep the beloved close, as if soaked into one's very self.
Fifth line, "yukubeku omōyu": "I feel I would take it along." "Beku" is the continuative form of "beshi," expressing what should or will be done, and "omōyu" means to come to feel naturally. The line has eight syllables, one in excess.
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Kaku shitsutsu ari nagusamete tama no o no taete wakareba subenakarubeshi
Next Poem: Kurenai no kozome no kinu o shita ni kiba hito no miraku ni nioi idemu kamo