Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 3

Written by the Pond at Gaeguksa開國寺池上作

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 · 56 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 3 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.

尋僧散步樹陰中。遇勝留連曲沼東。點水蜻蜓綃翼綠。浴波鸂䳵繡毛紅。仙人掌重蓮承露。宮女腰輕柳帶風。出戱游魚休避去。蹲池不必是漁翁。

Seeking the monk, I stroll through the shade of the trees and finding a fine spot, I linger and idle east of the curving pond The dragonflies that dip at the water have silk wings of green the mergansers that bathe in the ripples have embroidered feathers of red The immortal's palm (仙人掌) is heavy, for the lotus leaf has caught the dew the palace lady's waist is light, for the willow has taken on the wind Fish at play with me, do not swim away the one crouching at the pond's edge is not necessarily a fisherman