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 · 3 passages · 141 Chinese characters · reading time 1.5 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.
Foolish as I am, I humbly received the favour of the several Chancellors of the Department (省) and the Privy Council, who together submitted a memorandum recommending this worthless student, so that the rescript (制書) had already come down; but midway it was suddenly shifted elsewhere. How does this differ from a fish set free that goes instead into the cauldron of the horse-keeper, or a swan meant for presentation that vanishes of a sudden from the envoy's cage? This is a thing the court and the countryside sigh over together; it is not I alone, foolish as I am, who sigh. The steamer has already fallen — what is there to regret? And ashes, though dead, blaze up again. Ah, Heaven looks on, and Your Excellency looks on too; what more should a fool like me say?
鶚書朝奏九重天。御墨才宣萬口傳。昔見銀杯嘗羽化。今聞箚子忽登仙。
The writing that recommended the osprey went up at morning to the ninefold sky,
and the king's ink was barely spread when ten thousand mouths passed it on.
Of old I saw a silver cup sprout wings and vanish;
now I hear that a memorandum has suddenly turned immortal.
馬失焉知還是福。羊亡不用若相追。品題全繫山公手。何恨天書半路移。
How should I know that losing the horse is not a blessing after all?
There is no use pursuing the sheep that is lost.
The appraisal hangs wholly on the hand of Lord Shan (山公);
why should I resent that the writing from Heaven was shifted half-way along the road?