Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 15
Matching the Rhymes of Song, the Instructor (文學)次韻宋文學
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.
驚人妙語似神施。何事含冤桂樹枝。正合帝居參學士。謾勞蠻郡誨癡兒。每看筆浪千尋洶。深恨功山一簣虧。巧匠傍觀誰代斵。劉蕡不第爲時悲。
Deft words that startle men, as though a god had laid them out — why then do you hold a grievance in your mouth over the cassia bough? You ought to be taking part in the academy where the king resides, yet you labor to no purpose teaching dull boys in a southern district. Whenever I see the waves of your brush leap a thousand fathoms, I deeply regret that a mountain of labor was spoiled for one basketful. Even if a skilled carpenter looks on beside you, who could cut for you in your place? The age grieved that Liu Fen (劉蕡) never passed the examination.