Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 16
Yu Having Answered in Kind, I Reply Again劉見和。復答之。
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.
八載叨參奉引聯。未曾超上赭袍前。元宵御宴今宵侍。昨日愚儒此日賢。浪蕊浮花那有實。紫鉛丹粉假成妍。羡君西掖淸華地。芍藥吟高思湧泉。
For eight years I presumed to join the rank that leads the procession, but never once leapt up before the crimson dragon robe. Only this night do I attend the king's banquet of the first full moon, and yesterday's foolish scholar is today's worthy man. What fruit is there in idle stamens and floating blossoms? With purple lead and red powder they have made a false loveliness. I envy you the clear and splendid place of the Western Wing (西掖), where the chanting of peonies is high and thought comes welling up.
Interlinear notes 1
四品侍臣皆假鞓帶故云。
Attendant officials of the fourth rank all borrow their leather belts. That is why it is said so.