Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 10

Playfully Composing a Song of the Little Peony in the Rain戱作雨中小牡丹歌

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 · 163 Chinese characters · reading time 1.6 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.

春欲去萬物各悽然。相將欲設餞春筵。烟籠高柳展翠幙。霧爲祖帳張其前。落花先作錦茵鋪。餘花含露涕漣漣。酴𮡋花是餞春醴。蝶釀蜂嘗灑以雨。鸎爲送春歌。鷰爲送春舞。東君大醉倒且顚。是夜不去許留連。夜深欲命薦枕女。桃頑杏鄙無可憐。唯有花王小女子。年少嬌饒顔最美。此花是夜嫁東君。含羞尙未開笑齒。東君貪翫留數日。日夕花心方嫵媚。炎帝駸駸交代來。東君歸意何由弭。君去也花慘然。紅臉至今猶帶淚。

Spring is about to go, and all things grow sorrowful each in its way, and leading one another they would spread a feast to see spring off. Mist wraps the tall willows and spreads a green curtain, and mist becomes the farewell awning, pitched before them. Falling blossoms first lay out a brocade mat, and the remaining flowers hold dew, their tears running down. The rambler rose (酤醺花) is the sweet wine for seeing spring away, brewed by butterflies, tasted by bees, and sprinkled down as rain. The oriole sings the song of sending spring off, and the swallow dances the dance of sending spring off. The god of spring, deeply drunk, stumbles and sprawls, and has consented to stay this night and not depart. The night deepens, and he would call a woman to attend his bed, but the peach is dull and the apricot vulgar, with nothing lovely about them. There is only the little daughter of the king of flowers, young in years and charming, her face the fairest of all. This flower was married to the god of spring this night, and holding her shyness has not yet parted her smiling teeth. The god of spring, greedy for pleasure, stayed several days, and as the day declines the flower's heart grows ever more lovely. The god of summer comes quickly to take his turn; what can stay the god of spring's mind to go home? Now that you go, the flower is desolate, and her red cheeks even now still carry tears.

‹ Watching Fields Being Watered under a Drought SkyContentsEarly Spring ›Listen to this piece