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Rising from Illness in Late Spring暮春病起

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 · 2 passages · 56 Chinese characters · reading time 0.5 min

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.

林鸎初至如新婦。巢燕重來似故人。景物漸佳堪翫惜。病中虛度百花春。

The oriole first come to the grove is like a new bride the swallow back at its nest is like an old friend The scenery grows finer and fit to enjoy, yet what a pity — in sickness I have idly spent the spring of a hundred flowers

Interlinear notes 1

二首

Two poems.

病中虛度百花紅。病起方驚一夢空。唯有薔薇餘數萼。尙能嬌笑慰衰翁。

In sickness I idly spent the season when a hundred flowers were red and rising from sickness I am startled at last that one dream was empty Only the roses have a few blossoms left, still able to smile sweetly and comfort an old man