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Do Not Say That Governing a District Is a Pleasure莫導爲州樂

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 · 4 passages · 160 Chinese characters · reading time 1.7 min

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.

莫導爲州樂。爲州乃反憂。公庭喧似市。訟牒委如丘。忍課殘村稅。愁看滿獄囚。也無開口笑。況奈事遨遊。

Do not say that governing a district is a pleasure; governing a district is rather a care. The office courtyard is noisy as a market, and litigation papers pile up like a hill. I must bring myself to tax ruined villages, and look with sorrow on prisons full of convicts. There is nothing to open my mouth and laugh at — how much less to make a business of amusement?

Interlinear notes 1

四首

Four poems.

莫導爲州樂。爲州憂轉新。怒顔訶郡吏。曲膝拜王人。屬郡行春慣。靈祠乞雨頻。片時閑未得。何計暫抽身。

Do not say that governing a district is a pleasure; in governing a district the care is ever newer. With an angry face I scold the district clerks, and bending my knees I bow to the king's envoys. Spring circuits of the subordinate counties are familiar, and praying for rain at the numinous shrines is frequent. Not for a moment do I get any leisure; by what scheme shall I draw myself away for a while?

莫導爲州樂。爲州憂轉稠。身無尺帛暖。囊欠一錢留。妻恚嚬難解。兒飢哭不休。三年如未去。白髮欲渾頭。

Do not say that governing a district is a pleasure; in governing a district the cares are ever thicker. On my body there is not a foot of silk for warmth, and in my purse not a penny is left. My wife is angry and will not unknit her frown, and the child is hungry and will not stop crying. If three years pass and I cannot leave, white hair will be covering my whole head.

憂深何以遣。些少宴遊晨。盞斝生靑暈。琴箏羃素塵。江山應蓄怨。花柳若爲春。不是風情薄。官箴大逼人。

The care is deep — with what shall I loosen it? There are only a few mornings of feasting and play. On the cup a green halo rises, and white dust has covered the geomungo and the zither. River and mountain must surely have piled up resentment, and for whom shall flowers and willows become spring? It is not that my feeling for beauty is thin, but that the bounds of office press a man hard.

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