Matching the Rhymes of "Listening to the Geomungo" by Jin Hwa, Rectifier of Studies (學正) — two poems次韻陳學正澕聞琴二首
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 · 2 passages · 80 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 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.
1The First
人琴幸暗合。絃手穩相迎。寓古心逾淡。通仙骨欲輕。淸於巖溜落。幽却谷風生。聽罷月微側。冷然洗我情。
Man and geomungo happily meet in a hidden accord,
and string and hand receive each other at ease.
Entrusted to what is old, the heart grows the plainer;
reaching through to the immortals, the bones would turn light.
In clearness it is better than the sound of water dripping from rock;
in depth it is as though a valley wind were rising.
When I have heard it all the moon has tilted a little,
and coolly it washes my heart clean.
2The Second
凄景調商促。陽春撫角迎。數聲敲月謾。餘韻出花輕。舊譜胷中了。新翻意外生。倩君能聽否。雖老尙鍾情。
In a desolate scene he hurries out the sang mode (商調),
and in the warm spring he strokes the gak mode (角調) to meet it.
A few notes are idle, as if knocking at the moon;
the lingering resonance comes out through the flowers, light.
The old scores are all there in his breast,
and the new tunes come out beyond all expectation.
I ask you, sir: is it worth the hearing?
Old as I am, my feeling still leans toward it.