Kurenai ni namida utsuru to kikishi o ba nado itsuwari to waga omoiken - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

紅に涙うつると聞きしをば
などいつはりと我が思ひけん

Roma-ji: Kurenai ni namida utsuru to kikishi o ba nado itsuwari to waga omoiken
English Translation: That tears turn crimson,
so I had heard it said,
and yet, how was it
that I had thought it all
nothing but an idle lie
Meaning: I had heard that tears turn crimson—why, then, did I ever think that was a lie?
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems IV 811

Headnote: "Sent to someone who seemed cold."
The poet asks why she had thought it a lie when she heard that tears turn crimson. Discovering that the tears shed for an unfeeling lover truly take on the color of crimson, she declares that the old saying was no falsehood, conveying how deep her suffering in love is.
According to the headnote, the poem was sent to someone who seemed cold. The next poem, 812, is the reply, and the two form an exchange. It is the second poem in the sequence on crimson tears that begins with the preceding poem, 810.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us. The text gives the poet as "yomibito mo," indicating that the poem is anonymous.
The last line in the text reads "waga omoiken," which does not match "ware omoiken" in the reading line. Here we follow the text.

The first line, "Kurenai ni," means "to crimson," sharing its opening with the preceding poem, 810, and the next, 812.
The second line, "namida utsuru to," means "that tears take on the color," drawing on the saying that one sheds tears of blood at the height of grief.
The third line, "kikishi o ba," means "what I had heard," with "shi" the attributive of the past auxiliary "ki."
The fourth line, "nado itsuwari to," means "why, as a lie," with "nado" an interrogative adverb.
The last line, "waga omoiken," means "did I think," with "ken" conjecturing a past cause and taking the attributive form in answer to "nado" in the fourth line.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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