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The Parrot鸚鵡

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 · 55 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 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.

衿披藍綠觜丹砂。都爲能言見罻羅。嬌姹小兒圓舌澁。玲瓏處女惠容多。慣聞人語傳聲巧。新學宮詞導字訛。牢鎖玉籠無計出。隴山歸夢漸蹉𧿶。

Its collar is draped in indigo green, its beak like cinnabar, and because it knows how to say everything, it was caught in the net. A pretty child's round tongue is clumsy, while a sparkling maiden has much of a clever look. Having heard human speech often, it passes on sounds with skill; newly learning palace lyrics (宮詞), it draws the words awry. Shut fast in a jade cage, it has no scheme for getting out, and its dream of returning to Mount Long (隴山) goes ever more astray.