Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 18
Thanking Jeong Bun (奮), the Layman Iram (逸庵居士), for Sending Me Tea謝逸庵居士鄭君奮寄茶
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.
1The First
芳信飛來路幾千。粉牋糊櫃絳絲纏。知予老境偏多睡。乞與新芽摘火前。
Over how many thousand li did this fragrant word come flying? The box was papered with white paper and tied with red thread. Knowing that in my old age I am especially given to sleep, he gave me new buds picked before the Cold Food day.
2The Second
官峻居卑莫我過。本無凡餉況仙茶。年年獨荷仁人貺。前年亦送。始作人間宰相家。
My office is high but my living is low, and none surpasses me in that; I have not even ordinary food, much less an immortals' tea. Year after year I alone receive a worthy man's gift — He sent some last year as well. and so at last this has become a chief minister's house among men.