Presented to Choe Jeongbun (正份), Edict Transmitter (承制)呈崔承制正份
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 · 112 Chinese characters · reading time 1.2 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 17 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.
You pressed me so hard — how should I dare refuse?
My capacity was shallow and the cup was deep, and it was not easy to bear.
I did not know at all that I grew drunk and reeled at the banquet seat,
and how should I have known I was helped down the steep stone steps?
Not mindful of the honor of roaming with the excellent men of the royal retinue (法從),
I played instead the old part of a mad servant.
Only when I woke from my dream in the middle of the night did it dimly come back,
and when morning came it was hard to lift even my thick face.
The impeachment of the Cypress Terrace (柏臺) truly grinds the bones,
and the censure of the Medicine Department (藥省) flays the skin severely.
That I escaped sinking in such a wave
is all owing to one who was my throat and tongue and spoke well for me.
A kindly wind has blown the cold ashes into flame,
and the dew of your grace has wetted and revived a sick tree.
My illness has dragged on more than ten days, so I have put off coming to thank you:
I presume upon your closeness, and upon your great man's kindness as well.