Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 13

Matching the Rhymes of Kim Daenyeon's Poem Given to a Courtesan — With a Preface次韻金大年贈妓幷序

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 · 68 Chinese characters · reading time 0.7 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.

1Preface

夜飮梁君南一家。金君大年醉眠。妓以空盞就勸誑之。金起而欲飮不得。因戱爲一絶贈之。予卽和之云。

We were drinking at night at the house of Yang Namil, and Kim Daenyeon grew drunk and dozed off. A courtesan took up an empty cup, came forward and pressed it on him, deceiving him. Kim roused himself and meant to drink, but could not. Thereupon he playfully composed a quatrain and gave it to her, and I at once replied to it.

知君閬苑誤翻觴。見謫無聊下殿堂。坐爾舊狂雖失飮。尙緣仙分入平康。

Now I know: in the Langyuan garden (閬苑) you upset a cup by mistake, and, banished, came idly down from the palace hall. Because of that old mad habit you missed the wine this time, yet by an immortal's affinity you have entered Pingkang Lane (平康里).