Composed when she had been conversing with the Lay Priest Regent [Fujiwara no Kane’ie 藤原兼家; 929-990], at about the time the moon of sleep-postponed came out, to ask if he would stay, when she had said that she expected him to do so.
いかがせん山の端にだにとどまらで心の空に出づる月をば
| ikaga sen yama no Fa ni dani todomarade kokoro no sora ni iduru tuku wo ba |
What am I to do? Not even at the mountains’ edge Does it pause, but Into the heavens of my heart Emerges the moon… |
The Mother of Major Councillor Michitsuna.
The ‘moon of sleep-postponed’ (nemachi no tsuki 寝待の月) referred to the moon around the nineteenth day of the lunar month. This incident, when Michitsuna’s Mother is essentially saying to Kane’ie, ‘I’m sure I don’t want to detain you, if you don’t want to stay!’, is also mentioned in her diary, Kagerō Nikki, and so the poem can be dated to autumn, 957.