Elegy for King Gangjong the Great — Composed and Presented by the Academy of Letters康宗大王挽詞。翰林奏呈。
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 · 96 Chinese characters · reading time 1.1 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
夙興勞聖慮。晏駕促仙期。天上朝眞樂。人間喪考悲。空餘軒劒墮。無復舜裳垂。痛哭東門外。那堪望素旗。
Rising early, he wearied his holy thoughts,
and with the late carriage (晏駕) he hastened the immortals' tryst.
Above the heavens he attends court in true joy,
but among men there is the grief of a father lost.
In vain there remains only the fall of Xuanyuan's sword,
and never again will he let the hem of Shun's robe hang down.
We wail aloud outside the eastern gate;
how can we bear to look upon the white banners?
Three years on the throne, and the country was already fat,
when all at once a slight illness ended his toil in night robes.
The Jasper Terrace (瑤臺) is far off and the immortals' roaming distant;
the Jade Hall (玉殿) is desolate and the throne is not as of old.
We cannot believe that his becoming heaven's guest means never to return,
and still we wonder whether, roaming on the moon, he may yet come back.
The four quarters are soaked through,
皇恩久。有眼何人不淚揮。
The emperor's grace has been long;
what man with eyes would not scatter tears?