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.
綠樽傾北海。紅臉憶東墻。日月衰容換。乾坤舞袖長。室蘭曾襲臭。佩蕙各紉香。賴有淸風榻。披襟快納凉。
We tip the green wine jar at Beihai (北海), and red cheeks think of the eastern wall. With sun and moon the worn face changes, and between Heaven and Earth the dancing sleeves are long. In the orchid chamber we were clothed in its scent long ago, and wearing hye orchid, each of us strung its fragrance. Thanks to a bench where a clear wind blows, we open our collars and let the coolness in refreshingly.