Congratulating Yu Seungdan (兪升旦), Vice Minister and My Examination Fellow, on First Attending the Banquet of the Night of Lanterns賀同年兪侍郞升旦初侍燈夕宴
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 · 126 Chinese characters · reading time 1.2 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.
Among the fair ranks the worthy men are many,
but to climb the heavenly steps one's waist must surely be red.
I rejoice that you have first girded on a new leather belt,
and in the vermilion court attended the banquet timed to the Night of Lanterns.
The lantern-viewing that evening was truly magnificent,
and below Gangan Hall the people were as thick as woven cloth.
The sound of pipes and flutes grew ripe as they offered up a heaven-long span of years,
and a single wash of crimson tide encroached upon the jade-like faces.
The king poured the cup with his own hand and gave it to his attendant,
and even a single word bestowed would still have moved him.
How much more, when he treats you with the courtesy due an old friend,
so that his asking after your health must be a hundredfold.
Even from afar I know it: bowed low before the crimson dragon robe,
two streams of grateful tears must have fallen into the cup.
When, the bestowed flowers thick in your cap, you come back drunk and held up,
those on the road will point and call you a guest of the immortals.
Alas, I have long been undone by the snake in the cup,
and could not tread after you and attend at your side.
Interlinear notes 2
與上有舊。
He had an old connection with the king.
予以病未參故云。
I could not attend because of illness. That is why it is said so.