Written in the Palace of Wang Jin, Minister of Works (司空) of the Royal House, and Respectfully Presented宗室王司空縉宮中有作。奉呈。
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 · 84 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 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.
In the ward of the royal in-laws only you so dearly love your guests;
the famous garden and the fine mansion are all an immortal's own.
The colored rugs are laid so evenly that one doubts there is ground beneath;
the jade tower rises so high that it is heaven itself.
Beauties in red silk crowd the whole of the seating;
messengers of the inner palace (中使) in purple robes bring the royal word again and again.
The bounty of the ninefold palace adds a thousand households to your name;
in one day's hall of pleasure you throw away ten thousand coins.
The little pond where the ducks are loosed covets the look of water;
the cold moon that hides the flowers steals away the power of spring.
This mad scholar, who is no fellow of Ying Yang (應瑒) and Liu Zhen (劉楨),
keeps soiling the brocade mats of the Prince of Dong'e (東阿王).