Madoromade aware ikuyo ni narinuran tada karigane o kiku waza ni shite - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

まとろまてあはれ幾夜に成ぬらん
只鴈金を聞わさにして

Roma-ji: Madoromade aware ikuyo ni narinuran tada karigane o kiku waza ni shite
English Translation: Without a moment's sleep,
ah, how many nights it's been,
how many have passed,
doing nothing but lie and hear
the crying of the wild geese
Meaning: Without a moment's sleep—ah, how many nights has it been, with nothing to do but listen to the cries of the wild geese?
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.
This is one of the poems in the jottings Izumi Shikibu wrote at dawn. Even the colors of the grasses and trees were changing as she watched. Though the season of early winter showers was still some way off, the sight of grasses bending painfully in the wind made her own life, like dew about to vanish, seem strange to her. Too sad to go inside, she lay down near the veranda but could not sleep at all; while everyone else slept soundly, her eyes stayed wide open and she felt vaguely resentful, when she heard the faint cry of wild geese. Thinking that no one else could feel things so deeply, she found it almost unbearable and wrote this poem.
These jottings were sent just as they were in reply to the prince's "Aki no yo no ariake no tsuki no iru made ni yasuraikanete kaerinishi kana." The prince answered this poem with "Madoromade kumoi no kari no ne o kiku wa kokorozukara no waza ni zo arikeru."

The first line means "without dozing," with a negative connective. The second and third lines mean "ah, how many nights has it been?" with an exclamation and auxiliaries of completion and present conjecture.
The lower verses mean "doing nothing but listening to the wild geese," the geese's cry being the voice of the migrating birds and the last word meaning one's occupation. With a sigh of "ah" at its heart, the poem expresses the deep loneliness of autumn nights spent sleepless, hearing only the calls of the arriving geese.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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