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 · 90 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 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.
The leaves of the grove are still green,
and the cricket cries beneath the stone steps.
The women, already startled by autumn,
quietly set their looms and shuttles in order.
Only the old widow
folds her hands together and hopes for warmth again.
The seasons have their appointed course;
will their coming and going be for your sake?
The maples in the garden are about to redden —
you must look out your old padded clothes.
She answered: what words are these?
I am the poorest of women.
The old padding was pawned long ago,
and who would give me new clothes again?
Hearing her, I grew sad with pity,
my heart as if caught on a grief of my own.
When the late days of autumn come round
I promise to give her at least a foot of silk.