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

Following the Rhymes of Supernumerary Gentleman Mun, My Fellow Graduate, in His 「Written at Gamnosa」次韻同年文員外題甘露寺

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 · 168 Chinese characters · reading time 1.8 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.

聞君往遊碧山中。手弄寒溪月盈掬。欲將好句償淸債。暫伴霜猿留翠麓。故應詩韻轉淸越。獨和松風響空谷。沙頭鷺立屛中雙。竹外鶴閑圖上六。遠帆一片暮何之。過我天涯送鴈目。白雲斷處霽光浮。眉岫連妍煙抹綠。忽憶子猷遊剡溪。緬懷魏萬尋王屋。雪眉老僧胡眼碧。一榻蒲團留客宿。幽泉冷冷入耳淸。洗却從來箏笛俗。歸來瀉作瑤琴聲。云是新翻流水曲。至今夢繞煙江淸。逸想飄然無迫束。衣冠尙有巢由心。散人那數松江陸。

I hear that you have gone roaming among the green mountains Toying with the cold stream in your hand, you hold a handful full of moon To repay a clear debt with fine lines you stay a while on the green bank, paired with the frost-struck gibbon And so the rhymes of your poem are the clearer and the finer answering the pine wind alone, echoing in the empty valley The egrets on the sandbar are a pair out of a folding screen the idle cranes beyond the bamboo are the six upon a painting Where is that one far-off sail going at dusk? It passes before my eyes as I send off the wild geese at the sky's edge Where the white clouds break, clear light floats up and the brow-like peaks run on in beauty while the mist paints them blue Suddenly I recall how Ziyou (子猷) roamed on the Shanxi (剡溪) and distantly I think of how Wei Wan (魏萬) sought out Mount Wangwu (王屋山) The white-browed old monk has eyes as blue as a barbarian's and keeps his guest to sleep on a single rush-matted bench The hidden spring enters the ear coldly and clear washing away all the vulgarity of zither and flute until now Coming back, I pour it out and make of it the sound of a jade geomungo calling it a newly turned version of the tune 「Flowing Water」 (流水) All this while my dreams have circled the misty clear river and my soaring thoughts fly free of any tether Capped and belted, I still have the heart of Chao Fu and Xu You so as a scattered idler, how should I reckon myself against the Lu (陸氏) of Songjiang (松江)?

‹ Sending Someone Off by the River in Late Spring, with Feeling — In Six Characters Contents Written on Impulse at the Thatched Hall at Aenggye ›Listen to this piece