Kokoromi ni ame mo furanan yado sugite ura yuku tsuki no kage ya tomaru to - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

こゝろみに雨もふらなん宿過て
浦行月の影やとまると

Roma-ji: Kokoromi ni ame mo furanan yado sugite ura yuku tsuki no kage ya tomaru to
English Translation: If only, to test it,
the rain would fall, to see whether
the moonlight that passes
by my house toward the bay
might linger here a while
Meaning: If only rain would fall, just to see whether the moonlight passing my house on its way to the bay might stay a while.
Commentary: 16 Gazing at the Moon from a Ruined House

After the misunderstanding over the carriage at her gate, the prince's visits had grown rare. On a moonlit night, lying down, Izumi Shikibu could not help gazing at the moon, murmuring "how enviable," and she sent the prince "Tsuki o mite aretaru yado ni nagamu to wa mi ni konu made mo tare ni tsugeyo to." She had her privy maid hand it to the officer of the Right Palace Guards with the words "Please come." The prince was conversing with his people, but when they withdrew and he was about to go in, the officer presented it, and the prince said, "Make ready the usual carriage," and set out. As she sat near the veranda gazing at the moon, someone came in; she lowered the blind, and saw that he was not dressed as she was used to seeing him, yet his well-worn informal robe looked all the more charming. Without a word he placed a letter on his fan and passed it in, saying, "Your messenger left so quickly," and she held out her own fan to take it. The prince strolled through the lovely garden plantings, murmuring "Is one but dew upon the grass?" with great elegance. Coming near, he said, "I will go home tonight. I came to see whom you are meeting in secret. Tomorrow is a day of abstinence, and it will look odd if I am not at home," and made to leave.
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 privy maid was a girl who served at menial tasks such as cleaning chamber pots. The officer of the Right Palace Guards was the prince's close attendant who accompanied him and carried his letters.
Wishing to hold back the prince, who was about to leave because of his day of abstinence, Izumi Shikibu offered him this poem.
The prince found her far more childlike and artless than people said and was moved, saying, "Ah, my dear," and he came up and stayed a while. As he left, he recited "Ajikinaku kumoi no tsuki ni sasowarete kage koso izure kokoro ya wa yuku."

The opening lines mean "if only, to test it, the rain would fall," ending in a particle that wishes for something beyond oneself, based on the idea that rain keeps a visitor from leaving.
The remaining lines mean "to see whether the moonlight passing my house toward the bay would stay," where the moonlight stands for the departing prince himself, with an interrogative particle. Since he said he had come to see the moon, she likens him to the moon and tries to hold him back with the pretext of rain, in a poem both endearing and witty.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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