Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 13
Son Deukji, Head of the Academy, Having Responded, I Again Match the Earlier Rhymes孫翰長得之見和。復次前韻。
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.
新詩似着剪刀裁。老眼驚看錦段開。金牓記君曾首揵。玉堂慙我晚攀來。始終交契期膠漆。先後功名任杏梅。早識脩鱗橫海大。其如魯國▣於盃。
Your new poem seems cut to shape with shears, and my old eyes start to see a bolt of brocade unrolled. I remember how early your name hung at the head of the golden roll (金牓), and I am ashamed to have come late and clung to the Jade Hall. From first to last our friendship is pledged like glue and lacquer; whether fame comes early or late we leave to apricot and plum. Long ago I knew your long scales were great enough to span the sea; how could that be like Lu's □ in a cup?