Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 4
Lychees荔支
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 4 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.
唐書云。貴妃嗜荔支。必生致之。乃置驛騎。傳送數千里。味未變。已至東師。杜牧詩云。一騎紅塵妃子笑。無人知是荔支來。
The Tangshu (唐書) says: The Precious Consort was fond of lychees (荔支) and would have them brought alive. Post horses were therefore stationed to relay them several thousand li, and they arrived before the flavor had changed. A poem by Du Mu (杜牧) says, "A single horse raises the red dust and the Consort smiles; no one knows that it is the lychees coming."
玉乳氷漿味尙新。星飛馹騎走風塵。却因咫尺三千里。添得紅顔一笑春。
Jade-white milk and icy juice, the flavor still fresh, and post horses flying like stars race through wind and dust. And so, thanks to three thousand li made near as a step, he gained one spring smile from that rosy face.