Thanking Kim, Associate Administrator of the Wonheung Granary (元興倉), for Coming to See Me with Grain and Wine謝元興倉通判金君携糧酒見訪
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 · 110 Chinese characters · reading time 1.1 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.
In ordinary times, when nothing is amiss,
a man's feeling is truly hard to gauge;
only on coming to this hard season
do I begin to know the thick from the thin.
Even one who in past days spoke of deep friendship
and laid open his one red heart to me
has now turned his eyes away,
and face to face we are as sundered as Hu (胡) and Yue (越).
Still less would one who never knew me at all
grieve for me even once.
The Commissioner (使君) is truly a true man;
in the ground of his heart nothing catches like a spear point.
Hearing that I had fallen into peril,
his face moved with sorrow.
He meant to rescue me from far off —
how should I say we were not old acquaintances?
Already he brought the strong wine of Master Yeast,
and again carted in white rice like cloud.
He consoles my thirst and consoles my hunger,
and this intent is worth a thousand gold.
How ought I to repay it?
I would toss a great mountain as lightly as a goose feather.