Aki no yo no ariake no tsuki no iru made ni yasuraikanete kaerinishi kana - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

秋の夜の有明の月の入まてに
やすらひかねて歸りにし哉

Roma-ji: Aki no yo no ariake no tsuki no iru made ni yasuraikanete kaerinishi kana
English Translation: Until the dawn moon
of the long autumn night set,
I could not linger
waiting at your gate, and so
I came back home again
Meaning: Unable to wait until the dawn moon of the autumn night had set, I went back home.
Commentary: 23 The Dawn Moon and the Jotted Verses

After the twentieth of the ninth month, waking to the dawn moon, the prince thought how long it had been since they had met and that she too must be watching this moon. Taking only his usual page boy, he went and had him knock at her gate. Izumi Shikibu happened to be lying awake, turning many things over in her mind; lately, perhaps because of the season, she had felt more forlorn than usual and given to melancholy. Wondering who it could be, she tried to wake the woman sleeping beside her to go and ask, but the woman would not get up. When at last she did, she stumbled about bumping into things, and meanwhile the knocking stopped. Had he gone home? He must think her a sound sleeper, she thought regretfully, and wondered who else had been lying awake as she was. The woman finally went out but found no one, and grumbled, "You must have imagined it. Waking people in the middle of the night," before going back to sleep. Izumi Shikibu stayed up gazing at the misty sky until dawn, and when it grew light she began writing down the thoughts that had come to her in those early hours. Just then a letter came from the prince as usual.
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.
On the morning after he had knocked at her gate and gone home without its being opened, the prince sent nothing but this poem.
Izumi Shikibu thought how disappointed he must have been, yet she was charmed to think that he never let a moment pass and that he truly had seen the moving dawn sky, and she tied up the jottings she had been writing at dawn and sent them to him as her reply.

The first three lines mean "until the dawn moon of the autumn night set," flowing smoothly through a repeated particle; the dawn moon is the moon that lingers in the sky after daybreak.
The lower verses mean "I could not bear to linger, and went home," with a verb meaning unable to, auxiliaries of completion and past, and an exclamatory ending. Rather than blaming her for not opening the gate, he says from his own side that he could not wait until the moon set, and the restraint of his reproach gives the poem a graceful tone.
Author: Prince Atsumichi
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
Prev Poem: Akikaze wa keshiki fuku dani koishiki ni kakikumoru hi wa iu kata zo naki
Next Poem: Aki no uchi ni kuchihatenubeku kotowari no ame ni tare ka sode o karamashi