Isa ya mada kakaru omoi o shiranu kana aite mo awade akuru mono to wa - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

いさやまたかゝる思を知ぬ哉
あひてもあはて明るものとは

Roma-ji: Isa ya mada kakaru omoi o shiranu kana aite mo awade akuru mono to wa
English Translation: Why, I never knew,
not until now, such a feeling
as this in my heart:
that we should meet, yet never meet,
and watch the dawn break so
Meaning: Well, I never knew until now such a feeling as this, that two could meet and yet not truly meet, and so see the night turn to dawn.
Commentary: 6 The Night Before the Pilgrimage

Two or three days after the exchange on the last day of the fourth month, the prince came secretly to Izumi Shikibu. She was about to set out on a pilgrimage and was keeping a period of purification; besides, she thought his visits were so rare because his feelings were not deep, and that he had come only so as not to seem unkind. So she did not speak with him with any particular intimacy, and pleading her devotions to the Buddha, she let the night pass.
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.
The morning after he left without their having lain together, the prince wrote, "What an extraordinary way to spend a night," and sent this poem, adding, "I am astonished."
Feeling sorry that he must indeed have been astonished, Izumi Shikibu replied with "Yo to tomo ni mono omou hito wa yoru tote mo uchitokete me no au toki mo nashi," adding that she did not find it extraordinary at all.

The first three lines mean "well, I never knew such a feeling as this," opening with an exclamation of one at a loss for words and closing in an exclamatory particle.
The lower verses, placed last by inversion, give the cause of his astonishment: that the night should dawn with two people meeting yet not meeting. The play between "meeting" and "not meeting" vividly conveys the frustration of spending a night together without being united.
Author: Prince Atsumichi
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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