Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 16

Thanking Yi Jeok (李勣), Vice Privy Councillor (樞副), for Calling on Me謝李樞副勣見訪

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 · 56 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 16 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.

長恨門前雀可羅。賴公方辦士夫家。閭閻共駭星辰降。童僕爭誇宰相過。酌酒自慙無綠蟻。勸君還愧欠靑蛾。從今也任蝸廬小。已度高軒響玉珂。

Long I regretted that before my gate one might spread a net for sparrows, but thanks to you it has only now the look of a gentleman's house. The people of the lane are startled together, saying a star has come down, and the boy servants vie in boasting that a chancellor has passed by. To pour the wine, I am ashamed to have no green ants floating on it; to press you to drink, I am ashamed instead to lack a beauty. From now on I shall leave my snail's hut narrow as it is, for a lofty carriage has already passed, its jade bridle-bells sounding.