Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 9
On a Day in the Fifth Month of the Gimi Year, Thousand-Petal Pomegranate Flowers Bloomed in Full at the House of Lord Choe the Director of Memorials (知奏事); He Summoned the Academicians Yi Inno and Kim Geukgi, Yi Damji the Yuwon (留院), Ham Sun the Rectifier (司直), and Myself, and Set Rhymes for Us to Compose己未五月日。知奏事崔公宅。千葉榴花盛開。世所罕見。特喚李內翰仁老,金內翰克己,李留院湛之,咸司直淳及予。占韻命賦云。
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 9 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.
玉顔初被酒。紅暈十分侵。葩複鍾天巧。姿嬌挑客尋。爇香晴引蝶。散火夜驚禽。惜𧰟敎開晚。誰知造物心。
A face like jade has taken its first wine, and the red halo has invaded it fully. Petal upon petal has gathered Heaven's skill, and its lovely bearing stirs guests to come seeking. Burning its scent, it calls butterflies on a clear day; scattering its fire, it startles birds at night. Sparing of its beauty, it was made to bloom late — who knows the Maker's mind?
Interlinear notes 2
後爲晉康公。
He later became Lord Jingang (晉康公).
自況予晚達。
This is my own likening of it to my coming late to attainment.