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 · 84 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 10 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.
My lean horse goes slowly, and the road is blocked and long,
so I loose the saddle and stay here once again.
The grooms filling the road I disliked at first for their noise;
a lone crane cries in the woods, and only then do I love the quiet.
A flying bridge ten thousand fathoms long curls its tail like a rainbow,
and a thousand boats drawn up set their heads in a row like ik birds (鷁).
River and hill fill my eyes, too much to picture in a chant;
the misted moon is without a mind, yet to look on it is of itself sorrow.
On what day will the sand cease following men home,
and when will the water stop flowing to the sea?
Not seeing my old friend, my sadness only grows:
the setting sun is far and dim—do not lean on the tower.
Interlinear notes 1
時列舟爲梁。
At that time boats were drawn up and made into a bridge.