Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 5

Presented to the Gentlemen of the Inner Chancellery — Yi Gongjeong (李公靖), Supervising Secretary呈內省諸郞 給事中李公靖

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 · 56 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 5 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.

鐵幹稜稜萬丈孤。令狐雙美一生俱。仙鼇壯力扶山起。金虎雄精叱電驅。諫掖共稱張給事。將壇兼作李金吾。天池浴鳳恩波闊。餘潤能霑涸轍無。

The iron stem, square and firm, stands up ten thousand fathoms high, and the two excellences of Linghu (令狐) you have held complete your whole life long. The firm strength of the immortal turtle takes hold of the mountain and raises it, and the bold spirit-breath of Geumbeom scolds the lightning and drives it on. In the seat of the remonstrating official all call you Zhang the Supervising Secretary (張給事), and on the general's dais you have been as well Li of the Golden Bird Guard (李金吾). In the pool of heaven the phoenix is bathed, and the waves of favor are broad — can what is left of that wetting reach even to a dried-up wheel rut?