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Made on the Road to Gyeongbok Temple景福寺路上作

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 · 56 Chinese characters · reading time 0.5 min

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.

一路脩脩繞碧山。觸松紗帽絓梢端。渴窺深井難抔飮。行遇幽花試折看。

One road winds long about the green mountain, and striking a pine, my gauze hat catches on a branch tip. Thirsty, I peer into a deep well, but it is hard to scoop and drink; and going on I meet a hidden flower and try plucking it.

蜻蜓點過淸溝上。蜇蜴逃藏碧草中。山路何須僧導去。磬聲敲處認鴦宮。

A dragonfly passes over the clear ditch as though dotting it, and a lizard runs off and hides among the green grass. Why need a monk lead the way along a mountain path? Where the chime is struck, there I know the temple.