Yoso nite mo kimi bakari koso tsuki wa mime to omoite yukishi kesa zo kurushiki - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

よそにても君計こそ月はみめ
と思てゆきしけさそくるしき

Roma-ji: Yoso nite mo kimi bakari koso tsuki wa mime to omoite yukishi kesa zo kurushiki
English Translation: Though we were apart,
you alone, I thought, of all,
would be watching the moon,
and so I went to you—and now
this morning brings me pain
Meaning: Thinking that you alone, even far away, would surely be watching the moon, I went to you; and so this morning is painful to me.
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.
The prince wrote this poem in answer to "Yoso nite mo onaji kokoro ni ariake no tsuki o miru ya to tare ni towamashi," which closed her jottings.
After his five poems the prince added, "As for that gate, which was so very hard to open." Izumi Shikibu felt it had been worth showing him her jottings. At the end of the ninth month a letter would come from the prince asking her to compose, on his behalf, a poem for someone departing on a long journey.

The opening lines mean "even apart, you alone," taking up her "though apart" exactly. The third line means "would be watching the moon," sealed by an emphatic construction ending in an auxiliary of conjecture.
The lower verses mean "thinking so, I went, and this morning is painful," sealed by an emphatic construction. To her question "whom should I ask?" he reveals the night before: he went to her, sure she must be watching the same moon, yet the gate was not opened. As the close of the five poems, it gathers in a tone between reproach and sorrow the crossing of two hearts joined by the same moon.
Author: Prince Atsumichi
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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