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.
By nature I have always been halting of speech,
hoping thereby to keep my mouth free of fault.
Yesterday I spoke without thinking:
「When I am dead, who will sing my praises?」
A guest laughed and answered me:
「What you say seems to me not right.
Men of talent are rare in this world,
so what you ought to fear is that there are few worth praising.
You are no different from other men,
and there is not one thing in which you are of use.
Why must you look for someone to compose in your place?
A vulgar song rightly goes without an answering verse.」
Though his words sounded like a reproach laid bare,
their meaning was not greatly wide of the mark.
I repented the fault of what I had said before,
and rose, bowed, and thanked him two or three times.