Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 4
The Dance with a Pole on the Head戴竿舞
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.
明皇雜錄云。帝御勤政樓。張樂百技。女優大娘善戴竿舞。頭戴長竿施木床。命小兒持絳節立其上而舞。中音節。
The Minghuang zalu says: The Emperor came out to the Qinzheng Tower, where all manner of acrobatics and music were set forth. A woman entertainer named Daniang (大娘) was skilled at dancing with a pole on her head. She set a long pole on her head and laid a wooden platform upon it, then had a small child stand up there holding red tallies and dance, keeping to the measure.
此樓當日邇英奇。玉色曾無乙夜疲。胡奈今朝陳百戱。大娘頭上戴孩兒。
This tower was the rare place where the sovereign read in those days, and on his jade-like face there was never a look of weariness, late as the night grew. Why then this morning does he set out every kind of show, with a small child perched on Daniang's head?