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On Being First Appointed Remonstrator and Receiving the Gold and Purple as Well: Given in Jest to Kim, Rectifier of Omissions初除司諫。兼受金紫。戱贈金正言。

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 · 56 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 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

舊着靑衫人不避。新披紫袖衆爭趨。形容班品猶依舊。都爲身章貴賤殊。

When I wore the green jacket before, people did not get out of my way; now that I have newly put on purple sleeves, the crowd comes running and vying. My face and my rank are just as they were of old, yet all because of the badge worn on the body, high and low are changed.

Interlinear notes 1

司諫正言皆六品。

The Remonstrator and the Rectifier of Omissions are both of the sixth rank.

2Second Poem

綠衣方脫紫衣披。白鬢黎顔尙未移。腰嚲金魚微意在。自今張目少眠時。

I have just put off the green robe and put on the purple, but my white temples and dark face are still the same. There is a quiet intent in the gold fish pouch (金魚袋) hung at my waist: from now on I am to glare wide-eyed and cut down my sleep.