Yomosugara nanigoto o ka wa omoitsuru mado utsu ame no oto o kikitsutsu - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

よもすから何事をかはおもひつる
窓うつ雨の音をきゝつゝ

Roma-ji: Yomosugara nanigoto o ka wa omoitsuru mado utsu ame no oto o kikitsutsu
English Translation: All through the long night,
what do you think it was
that filled my thoughts,
as I lay listening to the sound
of rain beating on the window?
Meaning: All night long, what do you suppose I was thinking of, as I listened to the rain beating on the window?
Commentary: 10 Rain Beating on the Window

Even on the sixth day of the fifth month the rain did not stop. The prince recalled with feeling her recent reply, which had seemed more troubled than usual, and on the morning after a night of heavy rain he sent a heartfelt note: "The sound of the rain last night was truly frightening."
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.
In answer to the prince's note of concern about the stormy night, Izumi Shikibu composed this poem.
After the poem she added that, though she had stayed at home as always, her feelings had been strange indeed. The prince thought that she was indeed a woman worth corresponding with, and replied with "Ware mo sazo omoiyaritsuru ame no oto o saseru tsuma naki yado wa ika ni to."
"Rain beating on the window" is said to draw on Bai Juyi's poem "The White-Haired Lady of Shangyang Palace," which describes the lonely nights of a woman who grew old shut away in the palace and the sound of dark rain striking the window.

The first line means "all through the night." The second and third lines ask "what do you think I was thinking?" with a rhetorical particle implying that he surely knows: she thought only of him.
The lower verses mean "as I listened to the rain beating on the window," with a particle of continuing action. Using an image that recalls the Chinese poem's lament of a woman alone, she conveys in the form of a question the loneliness of a sleepless night spent listening to the rain.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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