On the Twentieth of the Sixth Month the Long Rain Suddenly Cleared; Walking the Garden with a Guest, I Record What I Saw六月二十日。久雨忽晴。與客行園中記所見。
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 · 100 Chinese characters · reading time 1 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.
Shut in by dark rain for more than ten days,
I loathed it as though a hateful guest were lodging with me;
but today it has cleared bright and new,
as if I had met an old friend.
I go round the garden chanting alone,
and the clear shade draws my quiet steps on.
Deep, deep among the green leaves,
the dew that is left weeps drop by drop.
The ground is bright enough to be looked into like a mirror,
and the moss on the wall spreads green little by little.
The apricots are ripe to softness, like yellow gold,
and put in the mouth are sweeter than milk.
The red plums hang down their red cheeks —
a tree of my own surname, and so the dearest of all.
The crabapples have hung out strings of beads,
and their taste is felt to be rather strong and bitter.
Melon vines run along the long fence,
and orchid blossoms cover the secluded plot.
At my ease I watch the changing of things,
and this too is enough to nourish a true relish.