Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 11
Visiting the Head Seat Tong, I Drank Hard and Let My Brush Run訪通首座。劇飮走筆。
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.
靑山似故人。相逢卽開眉。美酒如新婦。相對不知疲。我昔欲訪來。期以芳菲時。春光不我負。春日爲我遲。是時不劇飮。不若孤其期。此語方未旣。師已罄傾巵。前言特戱耳。於此竪降旗。
The green mountain is like an old friend: when we meet, the brows unknit at once. Good wine is like a new bride: facing it, one does not know weariness. Long ago, meaning to come and visit, I set the time for the season of flowers. The light of spring did not fail me, and the spring day is slow for my sake. If I did not drink hard at such a time, it would be worse than breaking that appointment. Before these words were even done, the monk had already drained his cup. What I said before was only in jest; here I raise the flag of surrender.