This is a haiku by Basho. Basho composed this on his 1688 journey to what is now Nagano Prefecture, which is the location of a Mount Obasute, also known as Mount Sarashina, connected to the legend of old-woman-abandonment:
Ubasute. That is this woman, alone, and with the moon as her only companion, and Basho imagines himself watching the moon with her somehow. There is a
Noh drama on this subject, and see Yoshitoshi's painting below.
The compound
omo-kage, usually means a trace or vestige, a memory, a "face-shadow," although it can also mean "face." I saw one version which translated this as "apparition," rather than face. There are some wonderful comments here:
Sarashinayama, Kamurikiyama. Reading those comments convinced me that we cannot just say "face" in English as if there were not more going on here; there is a lot going on! So, I was more free in this translation than usual.
The verb is naku, なく, a godan verb.
her face a shadow:old woman weeping alone,moon's friend俤や姥ひとりなく月の友omokage ya oba hitori naku tsuki-no tomoomokage ya face-shadow!oba hitori naku the old woman, alone, weeps
tsuki-no tomo moon's friendの no
友
tomo ~ friend.
(You can see the man carrying his mother up to the mountain,
and there's the moon!)
Because I am struggling with this translation, here are some more:
her face--
an old woman weeping alone
moon as companion
(translator: David Barnhill)
her face!
an old woman weeping
moon her companion
(translator's name unknown)
A frail shadow
The old mother cries alone
Friend of the moon
(translator's name unknown)
Now I see her face,
the old woman, abandoned,
the moon her only companion
(translator: "rei fú")
Mount Obasute
the image shows
an old woman weeping alone
my friend the moon
(Jane Reichhold)
In imagination,
An old woman and I
Sat together in tears
Admiring the moon.
(translator's name unknown)
In my dream, an old woman and I sat together,
tears streaming down our faces,
admiring the moon .
(translator's name unknown)
