Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 1
On an Evening in the Mountains, Singing of the Moon in the Well山夕詠井中月
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 1 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.
漣漪碧井碧嵓隈。新月娟娟正印來。汲去甁中猶半影。恐將金鏡半分廻。
A green well rippling, a corner of green rock; the new moon comes stamped there, fair and distinct. I draw it up, and half the reflection is in the jar as well — I fear I am carrying off half of the golden mirror as I go.
Interlinear notes 1
二首
Two poems.
山僧貪月色。幷汲一甁中。到寺方應覺。甁傾月亦空。
The mountain monk, coveting the moonlight, drew it up together with the water in a single jar. Only on reaching the temple will he realize: tip the jar, and the moon too is gone.