Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 11
Gamno Temple甘露寺
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 11 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.
金碧樓臺似翥翬。靑山環遶水重圍。霜華炤日添秋露。海氣干雲散夕霏。鴻鴈偶成文字去。鷺鷥自作畫圖飛。微風不起江如鏡。路上行人對影歸。
The gold-and-azure tower is like a flying pheasant, green hills ring it and waters enclose it fold on fold. Frost-flowers shine in the sun and add to the autumn dew, and the sea's vapor invades the clouds and scatters the evening mist. Wild geese chance to form a written character as they go, and egrets of themselves make a painting as they fly. Not a thread of wind stirs and the river is like a mirror, and the traveler on the road turns home facing his own shadow.