Katarawaba nagusamu kata mo ari ya sen iu kai naku wa omowazaranamu - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

語らはは慰む方もありやせん
いふかひなくは思はさらなむ

Roma-ji: Katarawaba nagusamu kata mo ari ya sen iu kai naku wa omowazaranamu
English Translation: If we were to talk,
might there be some consolation
for your heavy heart?
Please do not think of me as one
with whom words are spent in vain
Meaning: If we were to talk together, might you not find some comfort? Please do not think me someone it is useless to speak with.
Commentary: 2 The First Letters

After the exchange over the orange blossom, letters began to arrive from the prince. Izumi Shikibu was not by nature one to brood deeply, but she was finding her unaccustomed idleness hard to bear, and so, trifling though it was, the correspondence caught her heart and she began to reply. The prince wrote often, she answered now and then, and she felt her loneliness eased a little.
The woman is Izumi Shikibu, daughter of Ōe no Masamune and, as the wife of Tachibana no Michisada, Governor of Izumi, mother of Koshikibu no Naishi. The Prince of the Dazaifu is Prince Atsumichi, fourth son of Emperor Reizei, so called because he served as Governor-General of the Dazaifu. His elder brother Prince Tametaka had been Izumi Shikibu's lover and had died in the sixth month of Chōhō 4 (1002).
As the letters went on, the prince sent this poem with a finely worded letter. After the poem he added, "I would like to share some heartfelt talk with you. What if I came quietly, at dusk?"
Izumi Shikibu answered with "Nagusamu to kikeba kataramahoshikeredo mi no uki koto ni iu kai zo naki," and on receiving her reply the prince resolved, unexpectedly, to visit her in secret.

The first three lines mean "if we talked, might there be some way to comfort you?" with a conditional form, an interrogative particle and an auxiliary of conjecture. As an answer to her months of gazing in sorrow, he offers the solace of conversation.
The lower verses mean "please do not think me one not worth speaking to," ending in a particle of wish directed at another. Together with the invitation to come at dusk, the poem moves beyond letters and asks for a meeting face to face.
Author: Prince Atsumichi
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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