Chanting the Three Things on My Desk — A Green Porcelain Water Dropper案中三詠 綠甆硯滴子
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 · 80 Chinese characters · reading time 0.8 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.
One tiny child in blue clothes,
with fine jade made into his flesh.
The way he bends his knees is most respectful,
and his brows and eyes and nose are distinct.
All day long, with never a weary look,
he lifts his bottle and offers water drop by drop.
I have always loved to chant verses,
and when I compose, it is a thousand sheets a day.
When the inkstone dried I would call the lazy servant,
and the lazy servant would feign deafness.
A thousand calls, and still he would not answer,
and only when my throat was hoarse did I at last give up.
Since you have been at my side,
my inkstone has been wet every day.
With what shall I repay your kindness?
I will keep you carefully and never break you and throw you away.