The Chancellor answered in verse, so I replied again相國見和。復答之。
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
到頭陪座席嫌連。豈爲官階邈似天。畢竟一生難及處。詩工書絶得神傳。
Attending at your seat to the end, I still shrink from being ranked beside you
And how should it be because office rank is far off as heaven
After all, the place I can hardly reach in a whole lifetime
Is your skill in verse and excellence in writing, handed down from the divine
2Second poem
我於名宦不全遲。粗爲生遭湧墨池。較得相公房杜命。靑雲安敢竝鑣馳。
In name and office I am not so very late
And in the main it is because at birth I met with the ink-mole rising
Set against Your Excellency's destiny (命), like Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui
How should I dare run the blue cloud road with bits abreast
Interlinear notes 2
命家有墨池湧生格。予於生時把之。
Among those who read destinies (命) there is what is called 「the form of the ink-mole rising」, and at my birth I took it.
予嘗以公命幾於房杜。
I once said that the Duke's destiny came near to Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui.
3Third poem
步君星數相君形。大合鸞臺正署名。算我前途無幾許。不須努力着鞭行。
Reckoning your star-reckoning and looking at your bearing
It fits greatly that your name should be set down straightway at the Phoenix Terrace (鸞臺)
But if I count the road before me, little of it is left
So there is no use in plying the whip and pressing on
4Fourth poem
先我加鞭早享榮。緣公才逸捷於行。若將甲子論先後。先輩何曾畏後生。
That you laid on the whip before me and enjoyed honor early
Is because the Duke's talent is surpassing and his pace is quick
If we were to argue first and last by the cyclical years
Why should the senior stand in awe of the junior