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Shown to Master Jeong (鄭), the Vice Magistrate示通判鄭君

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 15 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.

1The first poem

江南地僻作孤囚。猶似籠禽不自由。嵐瘴熏人顔漸黑。相逢應愧舊交游。

The land of Gangnam (江南) is out of the way, and I have become a lonely prisoner; like a bird in a cage I am not free. The mountain mist and the miasma (瘴氣) beat upon a man, and my face grows blacker and blacker; if I meet an old friend I shall surely be ashamed.

Interlinear notes 1

二首

There are two poems.

2The second poem

人淳事簡雖堪喜。地瘠民殘不忍看。公退坐衙無一事。官人無事益難安。

The people are simple and affairs are few, which might well be a joy, but the land is barren and the folk withered, and I cannot bear to look. When I withdraw from the office and sit down there is not a thing to do, and the less an officeholder has to do, the less at ease he is.