Kuretake no uki fushi shigeki yo no naka ni araji to zo omou shibashi bakari mo - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

吳竹のうきふししけき世中に
あらしとそ思ふ暫しはかりも

Roma-ji: Kuretake no uki fushi shigeki yo no naka ni araji to zo omou shibashi bakari mo
English Translation: In this world as thick
with sorrows as the black bamboo
is with knotted joints,
I do not wish to stay, I think,
even for a little while
Meaning: In a world as crowded with sorrows as the black bamboo is with joints, I feel I do not wish to live even a little while longer.
Commentary: 47 The Black Bamboo

After their exchange about the winter night, Izumi Shikibu and the prince passed the days consoling each other's loneliness, though when she thought about it, it was all a fragile thing. The prince, for reasons she could not guess, spoke forlornly of many things and wrote, "I wonder whether I can live on in this world much longer."
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. His principal wife was a daughter of Fujiwara no Naritoki, whose elder sister Seishi was a consort of the Crown Prince Okisada.
When Izumi Shikibu's "Kuretake no yoyo no furugoto omōyuru mukashigatari wa ware nomi zo sen" arrived, the prince sent back this poem.
The prince thought that she, unused to such matters, must feel awkward about arranging a hidden place to live, and that unpleasant things would be said on his side too, so he resolved to go himself and bring her. On the eighteenth day of the twelfth month, on a night of lovely moonlight, he came to her, took her away in the usual carriage, and brought her into his own residence. His household was astonished, and his principal wife, deeply displeased, would before long move to the residence of her elder sister, the Crown Prince's consort. Izumi Shikibu went on to live there in service, her heart still never free of troubles.

The first line, "of the black bamboo," leads by association to the "joints" of the second line and the "world" of the third. The second line means "thick with sorrowful moments," where "fushi" means both the joints of the bamboo and occasions or events, and "shigeki" means many. In the third line, "yo," world, also echoes "yo," the space between bamboo joints.
The lower verses mean "I think I would not stay even a little while," with an auxiliary of negative will, sealed by an emphatic construction. Taking up her "black bamboo" and stringing together words associated with it, he voices a weariness with a world full of sorrow. As an answer to her lament that she would be left to tell their tale alone, it sounds forlorn, yet given that he takes her into his residence immediately afterward, it can also be read as the other side of a wish to escape the world's pains and live together with her.
Author: Prince Atsumichi
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
Prev Poem: Kuretake no yoyo no furugoto omōyuru mukashigatari wa ware nomi zo sen