Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 11
Matching the Rhymes of Elder Mun's Poem on the Golden-Coin Flower Not Yet in Bloom次韻文長老未開金錢花
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.
早夏移根用意栽。尙含檀口待誰開。千金欲買嬌顔笑。自負錢多不肯廻。
In early summer I moved its roots and planted it with purpose, yet it still holds its red lips closed — for whom does it wait to open? I would buy the smile of that lovely face with a thousand in gold, but trusting in its own wealth of coins it will not deign to look my way.