Kim Asked for a Poem on the Green Porcelain Cup He Drank From; Composed Together to the Rhymes of Bai Letian金君乞賦所飮綠甆盃。用白公詩韻同賦。
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 · 1 passages · 110 Chinese characters · reading time 1.1 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.
Trees were felled till the south mountain went bare,
fire was set, and smoke covered the sun.
Out of the kiln came green porcelain cups;
picked over, one in ten was taken.
Clear, the color of green jade —
how often was it buried in blue soot?
Its luster resembles crystal,
its hardness matches the bones of the mountain.
Now I know that the labor of kneading clay
seems to have borrowed Heaven's own skill.
Finely it dots out flower patterns,
so wondrous it comes close to the painter's brush.
With a ring it comes into my hand,
cool as if the feathered cup flew fast.
I do not envy Lord Zhu's (杼公) silver cup,
which sprouted wings and was lost in a morning.
Clear, it is fit to be kept in a poet's house,
so artful it seems at times a thing surpassing.
The host has good wine,
and for your sake calls you out often.
Do not decline three or four rounds:
let me be soaked through with drink.