Moved to Feeling after Attending the King to the Inner Hall內殿扈從後有感
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 · 80 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 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.
From the first I harbored a mind to withdraw early,
wishing to escape the reproach of walking the road by night.
Why is it that I have not withdrawn,
and see nothing but disordered affairs to no purpose?
Going forward and drawing back are all heaven's doing,
and man's affairs are hard to reckon beforehand.
The court does not lack worthy men,
so why does it use this one who is falling down?
Bending my body I enter the lord's gate (公門),
and become instead a laughingstock to Lord Bai (白公).
Though I have a face, I dare not enter,
and my shame is already not small.
How might I become a body at leisure,
put on a hemp cap (葛巾), and whistle long?
Outside the clamor of right and wrong
it would be refreshing, as though I had woken from a dream.