Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 1
In Autumn, Sending Off Elder Kim, Who Passed the Examination and Returns to His Native Village秋送金先輩上第還鄕
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 1 The collected writings of Yi Gyubo of Goryeo, gathered and cut in woodblock by his son Yi Ham in 1241 and revised and enlarged by his grandson Yi Ikbae in 1251. It holds poems and rhapsodies, memorials and reports sent up to the king, records written for temples and pagodas, stele and tomb inscriptions, letters and prefaces, and the state letters that passed to and from the Mongols during the invasions. The Lay of King Dongmyeong, which sings the founder of Goguryeo, stands in volume 3 of the first collection, and the daily life of a man who called himself the White Cloud Layman — with his wine, his zither and his verse — fills the later collection. The book closes with the last poem he wrote as his eyes failed and he laid down the brush, and with the dirge and tomb inscription others made for him after his death.
射策登高第。騰裝返故鄕。春同鸎出谷。秋趁鴈隨陽。落日愁行色。孤煙慘別腸。明年會相見。好去莫霑裳。
He has sent up his policy answers and risen to a high place in the list, and packing his traveling gear he goes home to his native village. In spring he came out of the valley like an oriole; in autumn he follows the sunlight like a wild goose. In the setting sun the form of him going is full of care, and at the lone smoke the gut of parting is wretched. Next year we shall surely meet each other, so go well, and do not wet the skirts of your robe.