Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 9

Singing of What Is in My Heart詠懷

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 · 56 Chinese characters · reading time 0.5 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.

江南從宦愧徒勞。俸薄時時典舊袍。阻向中天瞻日月。厭看平地洶波濤。何時撲滅心中火。同席潛磨笑裏刀。不待任棠來置薤。奮髥直欲拔強豪。

Serving in office south of the river, I am ashamed it is labour in vain, and my stipend being thin I pawn my old gown time after time. I am barred from facing mid-heaven to look up at sun and moon, and sick of seeing the waves run wild upon level ground. When shall I put out the fire within my heart? At the same mat he secretly whets the knife inside a smile. I will not wait for Ren Tang (任棠) to come and set out leeks: I would shake out my beard and pluck the overbearing man up straight.

Interlinear notes 1

指通判。

This points to the Vice Prefect (通判).