Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 6
The Third of the Eighth Month八月三日
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 6 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.
陶愁憑釅醑。扶病賴枯藤。伏石頑龜縮。奔峯怒馬騰。無風松自籟。欲霽霧光蒸。素習愛雲水。前身莫是僧。
To wash away my cares I lean upon strong wine; to prop up my illness I take the help of a dry wisteria staff. The crouching rocks are as though stubborn turtles had drawn themselves in, and the racing peaks as though angry horses were rearing up. Though there is no wind the pines sound of themselves, and as it clears the mist-light steams. My long habit is to love the clouds and the waters — was I not a monk in a former life?