Asatsuyu ni okuru omoi ni kurabureba tada ni kaeran yoi wa masareri - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

朝露におくる思ひにくらふれは
たゝに歸らん宵はまされり

Roma-ji: Asatsuyu ni okuru omoi ni kurabureba tada ni kaeran yoi wa masareri
English Translation: Weighed against the pain
of parting when the morning dew
lies upon the grass,
better by far the evenings
when I simply go back home
Meaning: Compared with the sorrow of being sent home as the morning dew settles, it is far better to go home quietly in the evening.
Commentary: 12 A Place No One Could See

After their exchange about the flood, the prince was having an incense burner brought to perfume his robes for a visit to Izumi Shikibu when his nurse, the Chamberlain's Nurse, came and admonished him sternly. "Where are you going? People are talking terribly about this. She is not a woman of any great standing. If you wish to have her serve you, summon her to the residence and employ her there. These frivolous secret outings are most unseemly. Besides, I hear that many men visit her. Some unpleasantness may come of it. All this mischief starts with that officer of the Right Palace Guards. It was he who escorted the late prince about as well. What good ever comes of wandering about in the middle of the night? I shall report those who attend you on such outings to the great lord. The world seems likely to change any day now. There are matters the late lord arranged; until you have seen how things turn out, you should give up such outings." The prince answered only, "Where would I go? I am bored, and I amuse myself with trifles. It is nothing for people to make a fuss about." He thought her strangely cool, yet by no means a woman to be taken lightly, and considered bringing her to his residence, but feared that would only make the talk worse; while he hesitated, his letters grew infrequent. When at last he came, he apologized for his unwilling neglect and said, "Just for tonight there is a place where no one will see us. Let us talk at our ease," and had the carriage drawn up and helped her in. Late at night he brought the carriage to a deserted gallery and had her alight; they talked under the bright moon, and at dawn he sent her home in the carriage. On the way home she thought what a strange outing it had been and wondered what people would think, yet she kept recalling his extraordinary figure in the dawn light.
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 Chamberlain's Nurse is the name of the woman who had nursed and raised the prince.
When the prince's "Yoigoto ni kaeshi wa suredo ikade nao akatsukioki wa kimi ni nasaseji" arrived with the words "It was painful," Izumi Shikibu sent back this poem.
The prince wrote, "I will never hear of such a thing. Tonight the direction is closed, so I will come to fetch you." She thought, how tiresome, surely not every time, but he came in the usual carriage and urged her, "Quickly, quickly," so, though she found it unseemly, she slid forward on her knees and got in. They talked at the same place as the night before, and the people of his household believed he had gone to the quarters of the Retired Emperor Reizei.

The opening lines mean "compared with the feeling of being sent off with the morning dew," where "okuru" layers the dew settling, rising in the morning and being sent home, answering his "rising at dawn." The third line, "when I compare," uses a conditional of fact.
The lower verses mean "the evening when I simply go home is better," answering his "each evening I send you home," with an auxiliary of continuing state. To the man who worries about sending her home in the evening, she replies that the parting at dawn is far harder to bear, voicing all the more strongly the ache of separation.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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