omokage ya oba hitori naku tsuki-no tomo

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 tomo

omokage ya
    face-shadow!
oba hitori naku
    the old woman, alone, weeps
tsuki-no tomo
    moon's friend

俤 omo kage ~ face-shadow

や ya
姥 oba ~ old woman.
ひとり hitori ~ alone.
なく naku ~ weep, sob.
月 tsuki ~ moon.

の no
友 tomo ~ friend.

The Moon at Obasute-yama

 by Yoshitoshi

(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)

natsugusa ya tsuwamonodomo ga yume no ato

This is my first poem to add from Basho, and it is a very famous one. It is from his prose-poetry collection, Narrow Road to the Deep North. Here is a lovely description from a blog post by David Bowles: "At one point he visits the ruins of the former strongholds and castles of the Fujiwara clan, wiped out centuries ago. The fields upon which warriors died defending their masters have become wild expanses of green, overrunning the glories of the past till hardly a trace can be seen."

There is no verb.

summer grass!
the warriors —
remains of their dreams

夏草や兵どもがゆめの跡
natsugusa ya tsuwamono-domo ga yume no ato

natsugusa ya
    summer grass!
tsuwamono-domo ga
    the warriors —
yume no ato
    remains of their dreams

夏 natsu ~ summer.
草 kusa (gusa) ~ grass.

や ya
兵 tsuwamono ~ warrior.

ども tomo (domo) ~ (group).

が ga
ゆめ yume ~ dream.
跡 ato ~ traces, remains.

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