Thanking Seon Master Eung for Calling Me In to Drink in the Rain謝應禪老雨中邀飮
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 · 84 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 7 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.
For some years we were scattered, each going east and west;
today, before the wine jar, we laugh together once.
A while we take hold of the bronze man and talk over old things;
again we lean on the stone woman and labor to speak of emptiness (空).
The furrow of burning incense draws out its clear ear all day long;
the lamp's wick ties its cunning insects far into the night.
What beads deep green on the window is rain falling on the willows;
what strikes the ground with hidden fragrance is the wind of falling flowers.
The drunken old man's feeling and high spirits are madder than Li Bai's;
the Seon monk's traveling kit is lazier than Daorong's (道融).
On another day I will not refuse to join the society,
for Huiyuan (慧遠) bought wine and drew Tao Qian (陶潛) in.