On the Point of Going Up to the Palace, I Roam Again at the Thatched Pavilion with My Fellow Officials and Write as the Brush Runs臨上闕。復與寮友遊茅亭走筆。
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 · 120 Chinese characters · reading time 1.2 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.
When Xie Anshi was at his eastern hill,
he never roamed and enjoyed himself without taking courtesans along.
But his upright purpose lay with the people,
and in the end he rose up for the people's sake.
I have none of Duke Xie's gifts
and only love the hills and the waters.
How should I dare look forward to governing the realm?
I only exhaust the pleasant things wherever I arrive.
If there are courtesans I do not dare send them away;
if there is wine I do not decline to get drunk.
Where in Gyeyang is it beautiful?
Only at this thatched pavilion.
The water passes below the pavilion
and, reflected on the railing, shakes its green light about.
It flutters as though a single painted boat
were floating amid misted waves.
In the dog days, when iron is ready to melt,
the cold here sets a man's teeth on edge.
My heart was still bound to this place
when the edict summoning me arrived from Heaven.
Leaving, I turn my head a hundred times;
how can I bear to whip the horse that carries me back?
Shall I be able to roam here again one day,
if perhaps I become an envoy of the light carriage (輶軒)?
Interlinear notes 1
典郡第二年季夏。以起居注見徵。
In the late summer of the year after I took charge of the district, I was summoned to be Court Diarist.