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 · 99 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.
My hair has fallen out and my head is wholly bare;
to liken it to something, it is a barren hill.
Can I take off my hat and not be ashamed?
Combing has long since lost its point.
If even my sidelocks and beard were gone,
I would be just like an old monk.
I dress the official cap upon its crown
and forcibly furnish myself with mounted servants.
Two men in yellow robes lead the way in front,
and the cries clearing the road are loud in the street.
Those walking the road mistake who I am
and scurry off in a flurry to get out of the way.
But the truth is that I am doting and mean,
of no benefit to the state.
With nothing but a bellyful of sacrificial meat
I merely eat much of the grain in the state granaries.
Even to myself my face is thick enough and deep,
so who among people would not mock me?
Better to gather myself up at once and hide away
than to make the faults of my own body weigh the heavier.