Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 8
Harmonizing Once More復和
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 8 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.
一龕仙室遲誰容。消息須憑李浙東。浪跡如今雲不繫。回頭他日夢渾空。生涯已付三杯聖。意氣都關尺劒雄。得坎乘流渾是夢。阮公何必哭途窮。
In the one-niche chamber of the immortals, whom does it tarry to take in? For news one must lean upon this Yi Jeoldong (李浙東). My drifting traces are now like clouds, unmoored, and when I turn my head, the dreams of later days are wholly empty. I have already entrusted my life to the sage of three cups, and my spirit hangs wholly on the valor of a foot-long sword. To meet a pit or to ride the current — both alike are dreams; why need Lord Ruan (阮公) have wept that the road was blocked?