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Presented to Vice Chancellor Im上任平章

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 · 182 Chinese characters · reading time 2 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.

某居門下久矣。年踰三十。投閑置散。徒恃攀鱗之幸。反爲失路之人。苟非恩門相國閣下成物之仁。則其誰恤之耶。冀立薦平原之一鶚。使無泣龍陽之前魚云云。

I have long been of your following. Though past thirty years of age, I have been cast aside into idleness and set in a useless place; I leaned only on the good fortune of having caught at the scales, yet I have become instead a man who has lost his road. Truly, were it not for the benevolence of Your Excellency the Chancellor of my Gate of Grace, who brings things to completion, who would take pity on me? I beg you to set me up as one osprey recommended to Lord Pingyuan, and not let me weep like the earlier fish of the Lord of Longyang (龍陽君).

Interlinear notes 1

幷序

A prefatory note is appended as well.

累葉衣冠後。三朝肺腑親。周王呼伯父。漢帝重宗臣。瑞世龍章煥。鳴時玉韻新。舊傳張相印。早綰彥昇銀。位已黃扉貴。身猶綠鬢春。飛鸎曾放手。跛鼈亦攀鱗。但備籠中藥。何參席上珍。同門多振躍。唯我落寒貧。三十無官客。東西浪跡人。顔瓢空有水。范釜久生塵。鍛鍊誰成器。俜停尙問津。前魚如不棄。何幸達楓宸。

Heir of a house that has worn cap and gown for generations, and close kin to three reigns. The king of Zhou called him his elder uncle; the sovereign of Han held his clansman-ministers dear. Auspicious to the age, the dragon markings shine; sounding to the times, the jade note is new. Of old he handed on the seal-cord of Chancellor Zhang, and early wore the silver seal of Yansheng (彥昇). His place is already the honour of the Yellow Gate, yet his body is still the spring of green temples. The flying oriole long ago let go its hold, yet even a limping turtle has caught at the scales. I am only a drug laid by in the basket; how should I rank with the treasures on the mat? Many of the same following have shaken themselves and leapt, and only I have fallen into cold and poverty. At thirty a traveller without office, a man whose traces drift east and west. In Yan Hui's gourd there is vainly only water, and in Fan Ran's cauldron dust has long risen. Though I be tempered, who will make a vessel of me? Staggering, I am still asking for the ford. If you will not cast away the earlier fish, how fortunate it would be to reach the palace!

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