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 · 112 Chinese characters · reading time 1 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 2 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 Silver River (銀河) lies far off beyond the blue sunset haze,
and the immortals above the sky meet this evening.
The sound of the dragon shuttle has stopped; the night loom stands empty,
and by the Bridge of Crows and Magpies (烏鵲橋) she hurries the immortal's carriage.
They meet, and have barely spoken of the pain of parting,
when already they say that by tomorrow morning they cannot stay again.
Two streams of jade-like tears are scattered like a spring,
and a single gust of autumn wind blows and turns to rain.
In the Palace of Vast Cold (廣寒宮) the fairy's white kerchief is cool,
and she sleeps alone beside the swaying shadow of the cassia.
Envying that divine pair their one night's joy,
she shuts the moon palace deep and will not let its light out.
The red dragon is wet and slippery, hard to ride;
the blue bird, soaked low, is frozen and cannot fly.
The sky turns toward dawn — it may well clear now:
I fear the Weaver Maid's cloud-brocade robe will be soaked.
Interlinear notes 2
陶安公。七月七日。騎赤龍上天。
Tao Angong (陶安公) rode a red dragon up into the sky on the seventh day of the seventh month.
七月七日。王母使靑鳥至漢殿。
On the seventh day of the seventh month the Queen Mother of the West sent a blue bird to the Han palace.