Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 18

On a Day in the Tenth Month of the Byeongsin Year I Sent Up a Memorial (表) Asking to Withdraw; the King Kept the Memorial Within and Sent the Palace Attendant Kim Yeongcho (金永貂) to Admonish Me Earnestly and Make Me Rise Again. Written This Day after Seeing Off the King's Envoy丙由十月日。上表乞退。上留表於內。遣內侍金永貂。曲諭復起。是日送天使後有作。

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 · 56 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 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.

中使傳宣入草堂。鞠躬如對赭袍光。雖然杤質霑春露。其奈殘生迫夕陽。身似雲輕宜可卷。語從天隨若爲量。聖朝求舊眞如此。拜命憧惶泣數行。

The palace attendant came into my thatched hall to bear the king's words, and I bent my body as though facing the light of the red dragon robe. Though this rotten timber has been wetted by the spring dew, what is to be done about a remaining life drawn close to the evening sun? My body is light as a cloud and may well be withdrawn, but the words came following down from heaven — how should I fathom them? That the holy court should seek out an old servant is truly thus, and receiving the command I tremble in awe and let fall a few streams of tears.