Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 6

Reaching Yongam Monastery and Writing on the Wall到龍巖寺。書壁上。

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 · 28 Chinese characters · reading time 0.3 min

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.

身到龍巖疑玉境。口嘗龜井認氷漿。千金難賭僧窓味。山雨浪浪睡一場。

My body come to Yongam, I half think this a realm of jade; tasting with my mouth the water of Gujeong (龜井), I know it for juice of ice. Not for a thousand in gold could one trade the savor of a monk's window, and when the mountain rain comes pouring down I sleep one good round sleep.

Interlinear notes 1

門有龜井。味甚佳。

At the gate there is Gujeong (龜井), and its taste is very fine.