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 · 3 passages · 99 Chinese characters · reading time 1 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.
Hoeyeong is an old friend of mine. He came from the capital to visit me, and when he had stayed some days and was about to go, I held him back by main force but could not. Thereupon I called a girl of green cloud-coiled hair to share his bed, and only then did he smile and stay. In play I made two quatrains and gave them to him.
留君無計別君難。故向靑樓喚綠鬟。異日長安一場笑。玉顔才笑解歸鞍。
Having no device to keep you, and finding it hard to part from you,
I went on purpose to the green bower and called a girl of green coils.
On another day in the capital it will be a laugh all round:
the fair face had barely smiled when he unsaddled for the road home.
憐君情調笑君愚。留爲紅粧不爲吾。請問群花誰管領。主人未頷亦攀無。
I pity the turn of your feeling and laugh at your folly:
you stayed for the red paint, and not for me.
I ask you — who has charge and rule of all the flowers?
If the master does not nod, can you lay hold of them?