Thanking Yang Gukjun, Collator, for Sending Cherries謝梁校勘國峻送櫻桃。
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 · 118 Chinese characters · reading time 1.3 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.
The crimson blossoms were fair upon fair in spring;
the red fruits are round upon round in summer.
At first I wondered that a host of stars should be so lovely;
then I thought shattered sparks had gathered here.
Picked in the grove, they were heavy with dew;
with their leaves they ripened full on the tray.
Bright as grains of cinnabar (丹砂),
rounder than beads of red jade.
I fear they will bounce and fall on my clothes;
I love to roll them in my palm and look.
The pits left over fill a handful, to my delight;
holding their juice, I feel my liver grow moist.
My eyes are dazzled by the glittering light,
my tongue knows the sweet and the sour of it.
Thank you — your feeling for me is close,
and you know that I am ill with a dried-up lung.
You share out the good of this fruit of the immortals
and help, as may be, the gladness of the wine table.
The pale-green plum is not worth pulling down,
and the light-yellow peach can hardly be compared.
I keep the children from taking them as they please,
and think of eating them together with my guests.
Whether they should go to the shrine as Lu's offering —
to taste them first does not sit easy in my heart.
Interlinear notes 1
後復經二首。皆亡。梁作二首
Afterward I made two more poems, but they have all been lost. Master Yang made two poems.