On the eighteenth of the eighth month of the gyesa year, on my first night duty at the Privy Council, sent to Chancellor Kim Ingyeong of the Inner Secretariat (內省), four poems癸巳八月十八日。始直樞密院。寄內省金相國仁鏡。四首
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 · 4 passages · 112 Chinese characters · reading time 1.1 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 18 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.
1First poem
紫樞眞與璧門連。疑是無階直上天。此去黃扉猶隔礙。院胥休作宰臣傳。
The purple Privy Council does indeed adjoin the Jade Gate (璧門)
And one seems to climb straight to heaven without a stair
From here to the Yellow Door (黃扉) there is still something in the way
So let the council clerks not announce me as a State Councillor (宰臣)
Interlinear notes 1
出入院吏呼宰臣
When I came and went the council clerks called me a State Councillor.
2Second poem
鞓帶霜髥尙舊形。忽忘新占大官名。欲知此日非前日。兩箇黃鶯引導行。
The leather belt and the frost-white beard are still as they were
Yet of a sudden I forget that I newly hold a great office's name
Would you know how today differs from the days before
A pair of orioles goes leading the way in front
3Third poem
公入鴻樞我到遲。我來公已向龍池。駑駘逐驥眞堪笑。十駕猶難附尾馳。
The Duke entered the Privy Council, and I came late
And when I came the Duke had already turned toward the Dragon Pool (龍池)
A dull nag chasing a fine steed is truly laughable
Run ten days and it can hardly keep up at his tail
4Fourth poem
拾遺當日得同榮。及到鈞階莫趁行。同甲猶爲雌戊子。應緣一月後公生。
In our days as Reminders we won our honors together on the same day
But when it comes to the chancellor's seat I cannot follow after
That with the same cyclical year I am the junior of the muja (戊子) men
Must be because I was born a month later
Interlinear notes 1
昔同爲正言。
Long ago we became Rectifiers of Omissions (正言) together.