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 · 1 passages · 84 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 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.
The paper fan of Goryeo is like a crane's feather in flight,
and the pine-soot ink of Sangdang (上黨) gives off a scent of musk.
The warmth with which you gave them to me is truly the weightiest of all,
and when I think of you and set it against that, your intent is hard to measure.
Before long I look to wet the edict-writing brush together with you,
and in turn I hope that a kindly wind may fly abroad with you.
Quietly it stains the rattan paper (藤牋) as though lacquer had been dabbed on;
shaken by way of trial, the white sleeve seems to hold frost within.
In the study I have learned already that a thousand pieces of gold are cheap,
and in the hot upper room I know it will be cool even in the sixth month.
Moved by so thick a kindness, I have no way to repay it;
tomorrow morning I mean to beg pardon and lead a sheep along.