Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) 東國李相國集 · Yi Gyubo · Compiled 1241 (Goryeo, 28th year of King Gojong); revised and enlarged 1251 · 1 passages · 75 Chinese characters · reading time 0.7 min
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.
The house to the south is rich, the house to the east is poor.
The house to the south sings and dances; the house to the east wails.
Why is the singing and dancing so merry?
Guests fill the hall, and there are ten thousand measures of wine.
Why is the sound of wailing so bitter?
In a cold kitchen no smoke has risen for seven days.
The child of the eastern house gazes at the house to the south,
and his great chewing sound is like bamboo being split.
Have you not seen General Shi (石將軍), who day after day embraced beauties and drank himself drunk at Jingu (金谷)?
It does not match the pure name of the starving man of Mount Shouyang, which alone has survived a thousand ages.