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 · 110 Chinese characters · reading time 1.2 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.
Mine is the case of attacking Yan with the men of Yan,
yet I admonished a close friend against wine and women
Nothing beguiles a man like women
nothing harms a man like wine
A man holds it precious to spare his own body —
can you cut them off?
He answered: of your words
not one of a hundred suits my mind
Rather than live without savor,
is it not better to die enjoying oneself as one pleases?
A man, once born, is bound to die;
there is only sooner and later
Do not say that living alone is a joy —
how do you know it will not be so after death as well?
If living is truly so toilsome,
then the ease of death is the better plan
Why insist on living only,
guarding one lone body, withered and gaunt?
Your words and mine run counter to each other —
who has gained and who has lost?
Wine and women are what people relish,
so they will surely call my words the talk of one who knows nothing of the world