Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 12

Again Following the Rhymes of "Looking East from Weijin"又次渭津東望詩韻

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 · 56 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 12 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.

白雲斷處碧天開。片段餘霞似剪裁。倦鳥橫衝昏靄去。翻鵶斜帶夕陽迴。飛筒疾遞軍書急。伏甲潛窺賊諜來。他日功成便歸去。倩人先築釣魚臺。

Where the white clouds break off the blue sky opens, and the leftover glow, piece by piece, looks as though it had been cut to shape. A weary bird slants across and pierces the darkening haze, and a fluttering crow comes back aslant, wearing the setting sun. A flying tube is passed swiftly: the army dispatch is urgent; armor lies prone and spies in secret: the enemy's agents are coming. When in days to come I have made my merit I shall go home at once, and I shall have someone build me a fishing platform first.