Chiyo-ni Tanzaku (translation help please)

[Iaido dude]

This appears to be a tanzaku by Kaga no Chiyo. I can't quite get started on the translation to know how to proceed.

 

 

 

 

[SteveM]

おもひ切て

古ちら無く時

郭公

 

おもひきりて

こちらむくとき

ほととぎす

 

I wonder if the cuckoo will sing in full voice, when he turns in my direction

 

 

This is a tough one. 郭公 (hototogisu/cuckoo) is easy, but there are a lot of haiku that use this, and there are  several alternative spellings, so there are lots of opportunities to get stuck. Anyway, if you could pick out 郭公, or at least the 郭 part, it gives a bit of a foothold (because the following kanji is almost assuredly going to be 公 due to it being rarely used for anything but this word). Plus, "hototogisu" is a 5-syllable word so that gives a bit of assurance that you are looking at a the last word of a haiku, which slightly helps sort out the preceding bits. I struggled for a while because I thought the first part was something-no-hana, so that led me down a few dead ends until I gave up that line of thought. 

 

 

[SteveM]

無く also led me down a dead end, as I thought it was read as なく instead of むく. 

[Iaido dude]

Briliant. Thanks, Steve. 郭公 is also the way Otagaki Rengetsu often brushed the kanji for cuckoo in her waka. Chiyo-ni has several oft cited haiku that reference the cuckoo, but this is not one of them. There is a Japanese book of the complete works of Chiyo-ni, which I am thinking of buying. I found a used copy, but it is in quite poor condition.