Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 4
The Palace of the Moon月宮
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.
逸史云。羅公遠以柱杖擲空。化爲銀橋。引明皇入月宮。見數百人皆着素練。舞於廣庭。問其曲。曰霓裳羽衣。
The Yishi (逸史) says: Luo Gongyuan (羅公遠) threw his staff into the air and it became a bridge of silver. He led Minghuang into the palace of the moon, where several hundred people, all in robes of white silk, were dancing in a broad courtyard. When he asked the name of the tune, they said it was the "Nichang yuyi" (霓裳羽衣).
橫空一杖作銀橋。行趁氷宮度碧霄。欲向玉妃誇舞態。細看仙袂雪飄颻。
A single staff laid across the void became a bridge of silver, and going on to the palace of ice he crossed the blue sky. To boast to his jade-like Consort of the manner of their dance, he watched closely the snow fluttering on the immortals' sleeves.