Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 4
Consort Yang Plays the Jade Flute楊妃吹玉笛
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.
楊妃外傳曰。妃竊寧王玉笛吹。忤旨放出。已而復召。張祐詩曰。小桃院靜無人見。閑把寧王玉笛吹。
The Yangfei waizhuan (楊妃外傳) says: The Consort secretly played the jade flute of the Prince of Ning (寧王), and having crossed the sovereign's will she was sent away, but before long she was called back again. A poem by Zhang Hu (張祐) says, "The little peach-blossom court is still and no one looks on; idly she takes up the Prince of Ning's jade flute and plays."
春風深院沒人知。皓腕閑將玉笛吹。竊向寧王非細事。可憐君意未終移。
In the deep courtyard where the spring wind blows no one knows, and with white arms she idly takes up the jade flute and plays. To take the Prince of Ning's in secret was no small thing, yet, alas, the sovereign's heart never turned away from her.