Ajikinaku kumoi no tsuki ni sasowarete kage koso izure kokoro ya wa yuku - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

あちきなく雲井の月にさそはれて
影こそいつれ心やはゆく

Roma-ji: Ajikinaku kumoi no tsuki ni sasowarete kage koso izure kokoro ya wa yuku
English Translation: Against my own will,
lured on by the moon that crosses
the cloud-dwelling sky,
my form may go away from here,
but does my heart go too?
Meaning: Against my will, drawn on by the moon in the sky, my form may leave this place, but how could my heart go with it?
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.
As he was leaving, Izumi Shikibu offered "Kokoromi ni ame mo furanan yado sugite ura yuku tsuki no kage ya tomaru to." Finding her far more childlike and artless than people said, the prince was moved, came up and stayed a while, and as he left he recited this poem.
After he had gone, she raised the blind and read the letter he had given her: "Waga yue ni tsuki o nagamu to tsugetsureba makoto ka to mi ni idete kinikeri." She was glad that he thought of her so kindly, and since he seemed to have heard her described as a very bad sort of woman, she hoped he would change his mind.

The first line means "against my will, helplessly." The second and third lines mean "lured by the moon in the sky," taking up her "moon passing toward the bay" and describing himself as compelled to leave, drawn along like the moon on its course.
The lower verses mean "my form may leave, but does my heart go?" with an emphatic construction that turns concessive and a rhetorical particle. Recasting her "moonlight" as his own figure, he answers that though his body departs his heart remains here, responding sincerely to her wish to keep him.
Author: Prince Atsumichi
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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