Matching the Rhymes of the Poem Ham Jajin Made on Being Appointed Administrator of the Army of the Right次韻咸子眞拜右軍判官有作
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 0.5 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 13 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.
From of old the true general has come out of the scholar,
and only pluck like yours is fit to lead troops.
The camp is strict now and army discipline grave,
while your rank still carries the purity of the Board of Rites.
Do not lament that the phoenix pond has been taken from you;
rather you have come to spread your authority in the camp of bears and tigers.
This is the very day for a man to save his age —
do not decline to pass the jade cup at the feast of congratulation.
Interlinear notes 1
公拜省朗。以親嫌未出。改禮部。故云。
He was appointed a department officer of the Sangseoseong, but could not take up the post because of a conflict of kin (親嫌), and it was changed to the Board of Rites. That is why it is said so.