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 · 3 passages · 84 Chinese characters · reading time 0.8 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 14 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.
1First Poem
九華燈焰耀熒煌。憑仗淸光樂未央。傾海爲油山作炷。殷勤好炤萬年觴。
The flame of the nine-flowered lamp (九華燈) shines out bright,
and leaning on its clear light there is no end to the joy.
Tilt the sea for its oil and take a mountain for its wick,
and let it quietly light the cup of ten thousand years well.
2Second Poem
氷荷霧縠障風搖。不倩挑頻也度宵。欲識聖朝多遠貢。南油西漆一時燒。
Ice lotuses and misted gauze block the wind and sway,
and without trimming the wick often it sees the night through.
If you would know how many tributes come from afar to this holy court,
the oil of the south and the lacquer of the west burn all at once.
3Third Poem
蓮燈點綴百枝紅。炤遍華筵錦繡叢。一夜淸歡都寄汝。區區明月若爲功。
Lotus lamps, point by point, red in a hundred ways,
shine all over the splendid seats and their silken clusters.
One night's clear joy I entrust wholly to you;
what merit is there in the paltry bright moon?