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 · 2 passages · 112 Chinese characters · reading time 1.1 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.
He lets thunderous talk roar freely at the tip of his tongue,
and sitting where he is, makes Zaochi (鑿齒) his clerk of the office (衙官).
The fox is startled when he first takes up his staff;
the birds are glad when the bell for the rite rings half and stops.
Which is whiter, the color of the snow or the Master's brows?
The light of the hills enters my eyes and contends in coldness.
To meet each other and get the meaning — this is truly the thing,
so do not, in days to come, look on it as a dream.
How should a scattered, drifting life be nailed to one end?
It is only because the upper world has immortal officials enough.
The old habit of cutting out clouds comes brimming forth,
and the traces left of dreaming of rain fade little by little.
Walking where my feet take me, I come by chance on Daorong's (道融) idleness,
and all my body still carries the cold of Guangwen (廣文).
Being without mind, how should there be a place where the mind is at ease?
Pray do not take your mind and look at it so particularly.