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Reproaching Myself自責

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 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.

三入諫垣無一語。得言舌在誰鉗錮。泚毫草制十六祀。思涸心枯空自苦。靑山有路不汝遮。胡不歸休早爲所。人或妄以台輔期。此特誑言愼勿取。

Three times I entered the post of a remonstrating official and had not one word to say; I had a tongue that could speak — who stopped it with tongs? Sixteen years I wetted my brush and drafted royal edicts, my thoughts drying up and my heart withering, tormenting myself to no purpose. There is a road into the green mountains and it does not bar you — why did you not go back early and make it your place of rest? People now and then rashly promise me a chief minister's seat, but this is only deceiving talk; take care not to take it.

Interlinear notes 1

有所憤作

Written because of something that galled him.