On the Twenty-sixth Day of the Twelfth Month, Setting a Boat Afloat to Go In to Wido十二月二十六日。將入猬島泛舟。
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 · 2 passages · 120 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.
On this day I was to go in to the island, and the men of Boan spread a great farewell feast. I was drunk and had fallen over, and did not even know that I had been put aboard the boat. In the middle of the night we came out into the midst of the water, and half asleep I dimly heard the boatmen shouting, 「The boat is going to capsize, the boat is going to capsize!」 At once I started up, poured wine and prayed to Heaven, and then wailed aloud once. Before long the waves settled and the wind turned, and the wind grew moreover very kindly, so that in a short while we reached Gapguntae (甲君臺). It was not many li from the island. From this time the boatmen pointed at me and said, 「This old man is one whom Heaven holds and guards; he is not to be taken lightly.」
Interlinear notes 1
幷序
A preface is joined to it.
半夜舟人久困風。醉中驚起訴天公。靈胥有意今方驗。退却孤臣一哭中。
At midnight the boatmen had long been harried by the wind,
and drunk as I was I started up and pleaded with Heaven.
Only now have I learned by trial that Yeongseo (靈胥) has a will,
for he withdrew at the sound of a lonely subject's single wail.