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 · 100 Chinese characters · reading time 1 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.
At Makgok I parted from the lovely one,
at Yugok I part from a good friend.
About to set out, I loosen the saddle again,
and facing each other we long forget to speak.
Trying hard to ease the sorrow of parting,
I pour out this one cup of wine.
The wine is thin and the sorrow grows deeper instead,
and clear tears fall on collar and sleeve.
Of all that one may give another, nothing equals words,
so will you hear my words?
Rank and riches are like drifting cloud;
the body and the world are not my own.
I beg you, keep your body whole,
and take care not to be bound by a name.
I now turn toward the Jade Capital (玉京),
but not to win the blue and purple cords.
I mean to wait until the marriages are all done,
and then plough a single furrow here again.
There will surely be a time when we meet,
so why should I resent the loosing of our hands?