Kurenai no yoso naru iro wa shirareneba fude ni koso mazu somehajimetsure

紅のよそなる色は知られねば
筆にこそまづ染めはじめつれ

Roma-ji: Kurenai no yoso naru iro wa shirareneba fude ni koso mazu somehajimetsure
English Translation: Crimson is the hue,
yet the color others see
is not known to them;
so with the brush, first of all,
I have begun to dye it.
Meaning: Since the crimson color of my love cannot be seen by others, I have begun first of all to dye it with my brush.
Commentary: One Hundred Poems 1494

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Ten Poems on Love"
The second of the ten poems on love. Since the crimson of his burning love cannot be known from outside, he has begun first by dyeing it into a letter with his brush.
It expresses a secret love through the color crimson and through writing a letter as dyeing. At the start of love, it captures the heart trying for the first time to put feeling into words. Where the preceding poem looked back on a former love, this one sings of love's beginning, setting the times of love side by side.

First line, “kurenai no”: of vivid crimson, figuring burning love.
Second line, “yoso naru iro wa”: yoso means others or the outside, "the color seen from outside."
Third line, “shirareneba”: ne is the perfective form of the negative, "since it is not known."
Fourth line, “fude ni koso mazu”: koso is a binding particle answered by tsure in the fifth line.
Fifth line, “somehajimetsure”: answering koso with the perfective form tsure, "I have begun to dye it"; somu is associated with crimson and color.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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